Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) chairman Morris Chang will sign a contract with the government of the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing to carry out the largest Taiwanese investment in China, Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) reported today.
TSMC plans to invest $3 billion (2.68 billion euro) in the installation of a 12-inch wafer chip factory in Nanjing, said the agency, citing sources from the company.
The plant will manufacture 12-inch integrated wafers for electronic and informatics devices including Apple's iPhone. The production will begin in the second half of 2018.
This project, which is TSMC's second in China, will produce around 20,000 chips per month, with 16-nanometer technology, not as advanced as the 10-nanometer which TSMC use in its factories in Taiwan.
At present, TSMC has a factory in Shanghai where 8-inch wafer chips are manufactured.
After the investment in Nanjing, it is expected that the participation of TSMC in the global semiconductor market will increase from 55 to 57 percent in 2018 and its share in China will rise from 46 to 50 percent.