‘Not afraid’: TSMC brushes off mainland chip rivals amid AI boom

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman C.C. Wei said the world’s largest contract chipmaker was “not afraid” of competition from mainland China, dismissing concerns that advances by Huawei Technologies and Chinese foundries could threaten its position in the global semiconductor industry.

Responding to a shareholder’s question at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Thursday, Wei said competition had been a constant throughout the company’s four-decade history and that it would continue to rely on its manufacturing leadership to stay ahead.

Wei also sought to reassure investors about the company’s 16-nanometre fabrication plant in Nanjing, saying it enjoyed strong support from local authorities, healthy customer demand and efficient operations, adding that the facility faced no asset risk.

His comments come as Beijing accelerates efforts to build a self-sufficient semiconductor supply chain in response to US export controls, with mainland foundries expanding mature-node production and Huawei promoting alternative approaches to improving chip performance.

Chinese contract chipmakers, led by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), have been increasing capacity for mature-node semiconductors, benefiting from supply-chain localisation and order transfers from overseas customers.

SMIC’s wafer utilisation rate rose 3.5 percentage points in the first quarter from a year earlier, even as its monthly capacity increased by 9,000 8-inch equivalent wafers in the first quarter.