After investing US$17.24 billion last year, TSMC this year plans to spend US$25 billion to US$28 billion on manufacturing equipment and new facilities, including a fab in the US. Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei TimesThe larger-than-expected capital spending prompted speculation that TSMC might use it to cope with new CPU orders from Intel Corp, rather than demand for smartphone application processors from Apple Inc.“We don’t comment on specific customers or areas. Our capital expenditure is based on long-term demand and the industry mega-trends of 5G and HPC,” TSMC chief executive officer C.C. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said that strong demand for 3- and 5-nanometer chips in HPC applications gave the chipmaker confidence to boost capital spending at such a significant rate. This quarter, revenue would grow 1.57 to 2.52 percent to US$12.7 billion to US$13 billion, from US$12.68 billion last quarter, the company said.

Source: Taipei Times January 14, 2021 15:56 UTC