TSMC and Japanese partners plan to build second semiconductor manufacturing plant

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, Denso and Toyota have jointly announced further investment into Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, TSMC’s majority-owned manufacturing subsidiary in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.

The four companies plan to build a second fab, which is scheduled to begin operation by the end of the 2027 calendar year. Toyota will also take a minority stake.

Together with JASM’s first fab, which is scheduled to begin operation in 2024, the overall investment in JASM will exceed $20 billion with strong support from the Japanese government.

In response to rising customer demand, JASM plans to commence construction of its second fab by the end of 2024. The increased production scale is also expected to improve overall cost structure and supply chain efficiency for JASM.

With both fabs, JASM’s Kumamoto site is expected to offer a total production capacity of more than 100,000 12-inch wafers per month starting from 40, 22/28, 12/16 and 6/7 nanometer process technologies for automotive, industrial, consumer and HPC-related applications.

The capacity plan may be further adjusted based upon customer demand. With both fabs, the Kumamoto site is expected to directly create more than 3,400 high-tech professional jobs.

With this investment, TSMC, SSS, DENSO and Toyota will hold equity stakes of approximately 86.5 percent, 6 percent, 5.5 percent, and 2 percent in JASM, respectively.

The closing of the transaction among JASM, TSMC, SSS, DENSO and Toyota are subject to customary closing conditions.