TSMC gives go-ahead for German fab

At a board meeting in Taiwan today, TSMC gave the go-ahead to invest $3.8 billion in a $11 billion fab in Dresden targeted at the automotive industry.

The fab will be owned and operated by a subsidiary company, European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) in which TSMC will have a 70% share and Infineon, NXP and Bosch will each have a 10% share. It is TSMC’s first European plant,

The fab will have a capacity of 40,000 300mm wpm. It is due to open in 2027.

Nothing was said today about the amount of subsidy being put up by the German government but it has previously been reported as €5 billion which would mean Germany is paying for half the $11 billion cost of the fab.

Germany recently tapped a climate change fund to provide an €11 billion subsidy for Intel to build two fabs costing €22 billion in Magdeburg

TSMC is also building a trailing edge fab in Japan with contributions from Sony and Denso costing $8 .6 billion, as well as two leading edge fabs in Arizona costing $40 billion although, after today’s board meeting, TSMC said it had approved a $4.5 billion capital allocation for the Arizona site,.

See also: Germany to tap climate fund for €20bn to subsidise chip projects