Odaily Planet Daily reports: Today, TSMC co-CEO Hou Yongqing stated that, as the company expands capacity to meet artificial intelligence demand, its need for chip manufacturing equipment has nearly doubled since the end of last year. Hou noted that the company has raised its quarterly equipment procurement estimate to approximately 1.9 times the level predicted in December last year, further indicating surging demand from AI developers and massive global data center expansions driving up chip demand.
TSMC currently still faces a shortage of experienced construction workers as the company attempts to build and equip approximately 20 factories across Taiwan and overseas—an expansion scale unprecedented in its history. In the past, TSMC typically advanced the construction of four to five new facilities simultaneously. “We are now trying to catch up at nearly four to five times the previous pace, yet it still isn’t enough,” said Hou Yongqing. (Jin10)