Long-time Apple supplier TSMC, which produces A-series chips for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple silicon chips for the Mac, will invest $100 billion over the next three years to significantly expand its production capacity to meet ever-increasing demand, Bloomberg reports.
TSMC previously announced a planned expenditure of up to $28 billion in 2021 alone; however, an ongoing chip shortage is plaguing the global semiconductor industry, forcing the supplier to increase its planned investments. In a statement, TSMC says the new $100 billion investment will expand support for production and R&D of new semiconductor technologies.
TSMC expects to invest USD$100b over the next three years to increase capacity to support the manufacturing and R&D of advanced semiconductor technologies. TSMC is working closely with our customers to address their needs in a sustainable manner.
In a letter to customers, such as Qualcomm, Nivida, and Apple, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei revealed that his company has been running at 100% capacity over the last year and that thousands of new employees have been hired in an effort to keep up with demand.
In a letter to customers obtained by Bloomberg News, TSMC Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei wrote that the company's fabs have been "running at over 100% utilization over the past 12 months," but demand still outpaced supply. Thousands of new employees are being hired, and multiple new factories are under construction, he added, and TSMC will suspend wafer price reductions for a year from the start of 2022.
The new investment comes the same week that Apple has reportedly booked all of TSMC's production capacity for 4nm process chips, expected to be used in "new generation" Mac computers.
