TSMC is considering building factories in Germany and Japan to diversify its supply chain.

Liu Deyin, chairman of TSMC, told shareholders on Monday that the company was considering setting up a chip manufacturing plant in Germany, but that it was in the early stage of discussion. In addition, TSMC will continue to conduct due diligence on setting up a plant in Japan, a decision that will depend on customer demand. It is reported that the company holds weekly talks to assess the feasibility of these projects.

In these two cases of potential business expansion, TSMC wants to share the cost with the other party, regardless of whether the main body of the other party is the customer, or the government authority that wants to introduce the chip business. In addition to Germany and Japan, TSMC is already setting up a new plant in Arizona.

Plan to expand business in Europe

TSMC's main core customers are in Germany, including chip designer Infineon and carmakers such as Volkswagen and Daimler, which rely on TSMC for their chip supplies.

Competition on the chip supply side is also heating up. TSMC's rival (GlobalFoundries Inc.) is looking to expand its fab in Dresden, Germany, and Intel has expressed interest in building a plant in Dresden. If all these plans come to fruition, Germany could become the chip manufacturing center of Europe.

"on the German issue, we are making a serious assessment, but this is still at a very early stage." When asked to build chip manufacturing plants in EU countries, Liu Deyin said at the annual shareholders' meeting on Monday, "We will continue to communicate with our major customers in Germany to see if this is the most important and effective for our customers."

"it's too early to tell," says Mr Liu. "customers are behind our global expansion and we will act very cautiously."

At present, chip manufacturers are speeding up production to solve the problem of supply shortage. TSMC plans to spend $100 billion to increase capacity over the next three years and join Samsung Electronics, Intel and other industry companies in the race to expand capacity.

The establishment of a factory in Japan is under due diligence.

TSMC had previously said it might build a chip factory in Japan. According to media reports, the investment in the plant will exceed one trillion yen, with TSMC accounting for 50% and Japanese semiconductor companies holding the rest.

"it is true that the cost of setting up a factory in Japan is much higher than that in Taiwan, but the investment is also due to customer demand, and we also discuss the cost with our customers, hoping to help us overcome such problems," Liu Deyin said on Monday.

As for the risks of the global layout, Liu Deyin stressed once again that "TSMC acted prudently to ensure that the global layout reduced the possible risks, which was carefully assessed with customer support."