According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has been exploring the possibility of building a new factory in Singapore. TSMC is the sole chip supplier for Apple. As per reports, this move by TSMC may be seen an effort to address the current global chip shortage.
TSMC is responsible for fabricating all the custom silicon chips that Apple uses. These include the A15 Bionic chip and the M1 chip. Several other companies have prioritized Apple’s chip orders so far. This has helped the Cupertino tech giant limit the impact of chip shortages on customers. However, as the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, TSMC still suffered greatly from global supply chain issues.
TSMC’s plans to construct a new multi-billion dollar plant in Singapore are still under consideration. As per sources familiar with the matter, the government of Singapore might be willing to help with the funding for the construction of the new TSMC factory.
As per the proposal, the production lines will be manufacturing chips with 7-nanometer to 28-nanometer fabrication processes. These are older production technologies, and therefore, Apple’s latest chips will not be manufactured in the Singapore factory, if the plan to build the new factory is realized. The Cupertino company’s latest chips are manufactured with the 5-nanometer process of TSMC. It is expected that if the plans go through, this expansion will free up production capacity at other factories. Therefore, Apple’s chips can then be manufactured at these freed-up production lines. Thus, the proposed Singapore factory would be able to partially alleviate concerns about global shortages.