TSMC Packaging Plant, It’s Said Delayed

While TSMC is actively expanding its advanced packaging production capacity, it is reported that the layout of Chiayi's advanced packaging has been delayed. TSMC originally planned that the equipment of Chiayi Advanced Packaging AP7 factory entered the third quarter, and the supply chain has recently received notices of postponement to the fourth quarter. At the same time, the outside world is also concerned about whether the shutdown caused by two industrial safety incidents in the plant a few days ago will simultaneously interfere with the construction of the Chiayi plant, and then impact the global supply of high-speed computing (HPC) chips.

In response to the news of the delay in the entry schedule of the Chiayi factory, TSMC did not respond as of yesterday's deadline.

Chiayi County Mayor Weng Zhangliang recently mentioned in the county council's policy address that the first phase of TSMC's Chiayi plant will be installed in the third quarter. However, it is rumored in the industry that TSMC has notified the co-factory that the first phase of the entry schedule will be postponed to the fourth quarter.

TSMC has not yet announced the details of the production layout of the Chiayi Advanced Packaging Factory, and it is reported in the industry that the first phase of the factory will deploy wafer-level multi-chip module (WMCM) packaging capacity, that is, multiple chips will be heterogeneously integrated and packaged at the wafer stage, and then divided into modules. It is speculated that this packaging technology will be the first to be applied to Apple's self-developed chips.

After the Executive Yuan announced in the first quarter of last year that TSMC would set up an advanced packaging plant in the Chiayi Science Park, the construction of the plant went through several twists and turns.

TSMC has planned to build two advanced packaging factories in Chiayi, and began to recruit technicians locally at the beginning of this year, offering an annual salary of more than 700,000 yuan to find people. The outside world is also concerned about the follow-up expansion of the second phase of the Jiake Park, and whether TSMC may build more factories in the local area.

On the other hand, two recent industrial safety incidents occurred in TSMC's Chiayi plant, which is also regarded by the outside world as one of the variables of whether the progress of the plant can be smoothly promoted.

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In response to the related work safety incidents, the Occupational Safety and Health Centre of the Southern District of the Occupational Safety and Safety Administration Department said that they belong to different contractors and that the two implementation areas are currently in the stage of suspension. One of the forklift accidents not only required an improvement plan for resumption of work, which was approved by the review meeting, but also an education and training plan because it was a mechanical disaster, and both situations could be improved before resuming work.

As for another scaffolding-related incident, the Southern District Occupational Safety and Health Centre of the OSHC pointed out that it is also necessary to put forward an improvement plan for resumption of work, which can only be resumed after a written review and approval.

Although the accident was caused by the contractor, the Occupational Safety and Health Center of the Southern District of the Occupational Safety and Safety Administration said that TSMC was the owner, so it also invited TSMC executives to hold a discussion in the hope of strengthening industrial safety.

Chiayi plant focuses on SoIC

Although TSMC's expansion of investment in the United States has caused the market to doubt the benefits of capacity crowding, the latest news in the industry points out that the progress of TSMC Nanke AP8 and Chiayi AP7 has not only not slowed down, but has accelerated, and the two factories have started to enter the machine in April and August 2025 respectively, the former mainly expands CoWoS production capacity, and the latter focuses on SoIC in the first wave. With the entry and acceptance of relevant machines to contribute to revenue, it is expected that Taiwanese equipment manufacturers will still have a certain endurance in their operations.

TSMC in the past few years advanced packaging expansion focus in Zhunan AP6, Taichung AP5, this year further extended to Nanke AP8 and Chiayi AP7, of which Chiayi AP7 is planned a total of six phase, before the PI factory dug to the site, so start the P2 plant construction project, because the progress is quite smooth, originally expected to enter the machine at the end of the year, has now been greatly advanced to August, will give priority to the expansion of SoIC, mainly because the previous CoWoS occupies the expansion space of SoIC in Zhunan plant.

The industry also revealed that the P1 factory of Chiayi AP7 is planning WMCM (wafer-level multi-chip module), which is similar to the hybrid of InFo and CoWoS concepts, which will be applied to the packaging of Apple mobile phones in the future; In terms of production capacity, the monthly production capacity of SoIC will reach about 4,000~5,000 pieces in 2024, and it is expected to double again next year (2026) after 10,000 pieces this year. This year, the main force of CoWoS expansion will be in Nanke AP8, which will be launched in April and ready to be launched in the second half of the year at the earliest.

At present, TSMC SoIC has four major customers, of which AMD is the first customer of SoIC, and Apple, the largest customer, will also introduce M5 chips, using SoIC-mH in the manufacturing process, and the manufacturing cost is more advantageous than the current solution. At the same time, the company is also cooperating with NVIDIA and Broadcom, mainly in response to silicon photonics and CPO trends.

Looking forward to 2025, as TSMC has two new advanced packaging factories entering the peak of delivery this year, and the packaging and testing plants are still expanding capital expenditure, the factories are now certain about the growth of operations.