C.C. Wei, chief executive and chairman of TSMC, confirmed on Thursday that the company is considering expansion of its American production capacity beyond Arizona and Texas is one of the options it is evaluating. The head of the world's largest contract chipmaker also confirmed negotiations with Elon Musk regarding usage of Terafab, but stressed that to be a part of it, the fab must be managed by TSMC, which automatically excludes burgers and cigars in the cleanroom.
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"We expanded our capacity consideration to see outside Arizona, whether we can get another chance to expand our capacity," said C.C. Wei during the company's earnings call with financial analysts and investors. "Texas is one [of our options]. We sent the teams to Texas to do all the evaluation. We also talked to one of our customers, who is trying to build a fab, Terafab, let me be more specific."
Recently in transpired that Elon Musk's Terafab was in talks with TSMC over using the giant semiconductor production facility together. Elon Musk confirmed the negotiations, whereas TSMC did not comment.
"We are discussing with them to see whether we can be utilizing that actual capacity also," Wei added. "So, we are still in discussion. If we have any solid conclusion, we will share with you."
The information about negotiations between Elon Musk's Terafab and TSMC immediately triggered chatter that the parties are set to adopt TSMC's typical business model it uses for ESMC and JASM facilities under which it operates fabs co-owned with other investors.
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