Bloomberg: TSMC wants to invest up to 10 billion euros in a German chip factory
TSMC is in talks with partners to spend up to 10 billion euros to build a chip factory in Germany. Insiders report this to Bloomberg. The company could approve the plans in August. The fab will produce 28nm chips, according to Bloomberg.
The possible factory would be a company of TSMC, NXP, Bosch and Infineon and would be located in the German state of Saxony. According to Bloomberg sources the project will have a budget of at least seven billion euros including possible subsidies, but this would probably be closer to ten billion euros. No final decision has been made yet and plans are subject to change.
TSMC could approve plans for the factory as early as August. The factory would then be focused on production of 28nm chips, report ‘some of the sources’ cited by Bloomberg. The focus is on chips for the automotive sector. It would be the first chip factory that TSMC builds in Europe.
TSMC already reported in 2021 that the company was considering a chip factory in Germany, although it has shared few concrete details about this since. In March, Reuters reported that negotiations on this were at an advanced stage. A spokesperson for TSMC told Bloomberg that the company is still exploring the possibility of building a factory in Europe, but did not elaborate. Spokespeople for NXP, Bosch, Infineon and the German Ministry of Economy did not respond to questions from the news agency.
TSMC is in discussions with the German government about subsidies to build the factory. These would be distributed under the European Chips Act, which the EU reached an agreement on in April. The amount of the possible subsidy is not known. Previous similar projects in Germany were subsidized by up to 40 percent, according to Bloomberg. Under the European Chips Act, several other chipmakers previously committed to building chip factories in Europe, including Intel, STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries. However, Intel previously said it would postpone the construction of its European factories and, according to Handelsblatt sources, is asking for more subsidies due to high energy costs.