Foundry giant TSMC has a factory in Germany at the top of its wish list. Now it is the turn of politics, according to media reports referring to a shareholder meeting of the Taiwanese industry giant on July 26th. 2021.
“We are currently doing reviews on Germany seriously, but it's still in very early stages,” said TSMC's Chairman Mark Liu, when the demand for the construction of a new semiconductor factory in Europe was on the agenda. For the first time, Germany was specifically named as a location after there were initial rumors in spring that TSMC could move to Europe with a factory. But the topic is far from being dry. “We continue to communicate with our major clients in Germany to see whether this is most important and effective for our clients”, Liu continued and therefore said in conclusion according to Reuters: “It's too early to say.”
The current race for the coveted government subsidies is causing semiconductor manufacturers around the world to begin upgrading. The USA as well as Europe want to see much more production in their regions again, large pots of money have been put in place for this. Globalfoundries is promptly building a new factory in the USA, TSMC is setting up in the USA and now presumably also in Japan and Intel is also looking for additional locations in Europe. In addition to Germany, Italy had recently raised its hopes there. Nothing has been officially decided yet, but that should happen this year.
But that is only one side of the coin. As TSMC also made clear at the shareholders' meeting, factories at locations in the western world are significantly more expensive to operate than in their home country or in China. As an example, TSMC cites the potential new factory in Japan, which could act as a supplier for Sony, among others. Nikkei reports that they are in talks with customers here, in order to first aim for the black zero. That is why, in the end, it is politicians who are challenged. Subsidy packages for new factories usually not only include part of the assumption of the construction costs, but also years of tax relief.