DIGITIMES Insight: TSMC's swelling facilities budget signals a global capacity race

DIGITIMES Insight: TSMC's swelling facilities budget signals a global capacity race

When chipmakers spend big, it is usually the machines that cost the most. Process equipment - the lithography tools, deposition systems, and etch chambers that define the bleeding edge of semiconductor manufacturing - has historically commanded the largest share of TSMC's capital budget. Facilities and civil construction matter, but they have rarely led the bill. That conventional wisdom is now being tested.