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Taiwan experienced a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday. The quake struck near the city of Chiayi in Taiwan’s south, according to Reuters, and it shook buildings in Taipei. TSMC said it evacuated personnel from some buildings and the science park in Tainan, Taiwan. TSMC said that buildings there started evacuations when the quake first hit. TSMC’s Fab 18, which produces chips for Apple, is in Tainan. The earthquake apparently resulted in no casualties and TSMC made clear that all its facilities remain operational.
Some buildings in Tainan sustained damage, and a small number of people were rescued from them, but there are no indications that TSMC buildings were among them. Because TSMC builds the most cutting-edge chips for many of the biggest tech companies (including Apple, AMD, and Nvidia), natural disasters on the island can create upheaval for the global tech industry.
Fab 18 originally built chips using TSMC’s 5nm process and now also uses the 3nm process for more advanced chips. TSMC also produces 2nm chips at Fab 20 in Baoshan, according to TrendForce. Fab 23 in Kaohsiung is also capable of using the 2nm process and will likely be producing up to 30,000 wafers by the end of this year. Kaohsiung is in the southern region of Taiwan, but TSMC has not indicated that there are any problems there.
TSMC Fab 12A and HQ
Credit: TSMC
An earthquake in April of 2024 struck Taiwan and forced TSMC to shut down factories to inspect buildings for damage. That doesn’t appear necessary with this week’s quake, but the one in April was a 7.2-magnitude quake that resulted in casualties and hundreds of injuries. That earthquake was the biggest Taiwan had suffered in more than a quarter-century.
Although most of TSMC’s chip production occurs in Taiwan, TSMC has taken massive steps to expand its foundry system onto other continents. One of those steps has been onto US soil, with the fabs in Arizona. Although construction on Fab 21 in Arizona originally ran into delays, it is now making 4nm chips for Apple, according to a recent report. And with Taiwan’s regulators clearing the way for TSMC to move its cutting-edge 2nm production to the US facility, it’s probably a matter of time (and profitability) before TSMC has 2nm chip production there.
TSMC also broke ground on an $11 billion fab in Dresden, Germany last year. That fab will help Europe build cutting-edge tech closer to home.