Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s leading semiconductor fabrication firm, has turned down an invitation to establish factories in India, Singapore, and Qatar, Taiwan-based media outlet DigiTimes reported on Wednesday.
The report added that Taiwan remains the country’s ideal production base, and its factories in the United States, Japan, and Germany were built due to “huge pressure” from major powers. However, the expansion was also made possible because of the countries’ strength in the semiconductor industry supply chain.
While Middle Eastern countries have displayed strong ambitions to build large-scale AI infrastructure projects, the report said the opportunities for TSMS to build factories in these countries cannot be eliminated.
According to the supply chain sources mentioned by DigiTimes, TSMC has sufficient funds to establish factories in Middle Eastern nations. Yet, the company’s main obstacle is the absence of an existing semiconductor industry in those countries.
In March, TSMC also increased its investment in the US from $100 billion to $165 billion. This expansion will support establishing three new fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a major R&D centre in Arizona, the largest single foreign direct investment in the country’s history.
Moreover, AMD, NVIDIA, and Apple are the leading customers in the country’s Arizona facility.
On the other hand, India has made recent progress in chip design. Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Tuesday that the country’s first chip design centers, dedicated to developing end-to-end 3-nanometer chips, will be established in Noida and Bengaluru.
The facilities established by the India unit of Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics represent a significant advancement in India’s efforts to enhance its semiconductor ecosystem.
