Taiwan's TSMC pledges another $100 bn to expand US chipmaking capacity

Hong Kong, Jul 16 (AP) Major Taiwan computer chipmaker TSMC said Thursday it plans to spend another USD 100 billion on expanding its manufacturing capacity in the United States. The latest commitment appears to bring the company's total pledges for investment in US chipmaking to USD 265 billion. It also raised its annual revenue forecast after booking record high profits thanks to runaway demand from the boom in artificial intelligence. The world's largest contract chip manufacturing and one of the world's most valuable companies, TSMC's results are seen as a barometer for the global chip industry and for AI at a time when worries about a potential AI bubble have been buffeting financial markets. As AI-related demand continues to surge, it has been expanding chip fabrication plants in the US, Japan and Taiwan. It said it is increasing its annual capital expenditure budget for this year to USD 60 billion-USD 64 billion, up from an earlier estimate of USD 52 billion-USD 56 billion. TSMC or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple. It had previously already committed USD 165 billion in the US for building plants in Arizona, with six fabrication facilities planned. The extra USD 100 billion in investments are to “support the strong multiyear demand from our leading US customers,” C C Wei, chairman and CEO of TSMC, said during the company's quarterly earnings conference Thursday. “We believe this investment will help to further foster the development of the US semiconductor ecosystem, strengthen the supply chain and support an increasing number of high-tech, high-paying jobs in the United States,” he said. AI-related demand globally continues to be “extremely robust,” Wei added, as the “AI megatrend continues to drive the need for more and more computation.” TSMC on Thursday reported a record 706.6 billion new Taiwan dollars (USD 22 billion) in net profit for the April-June quarter, up 77 per cent from a year earlier, better than what analysts had expected. (AP) SCY SCY