Indo-Pacific — 2026-07-13

TSMC Breaks Ground on Third and Fourth Advanced Chip Packaging Plants at Chiayi Science Park

BLUFConcentrating all four advanced packaging plants in a single county sharpens Taiwan's leverage over AI chip supply but compounds the seismic and military risk to that chokepoint.

TSMC broke ground Sunday on Phase II of the Chiayi Science Park, which will add a third and fourth advanced chip packaging plant, National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen said at the ceremony 12. Phase II covers roughly 90 hectares and is aimed at meeting global demand for high-performance computing chips and advanced packaging technologies, including TSMC's chip-on-wafer-on-substrate process 23. Two Phase I plants have already entered mass production, with the first ramping in June and the second expected to follow soon 12. Wu said the four-plant park is projected to generate more than NT$300 billion (US$9.35 billion) in annual output and create over 9,000 jobs once fully operational, and that it will link with the Southern Taiwan, Central Taiwan and Hsinchu science parks to form what he called the world's most comprehensive AI and semiconductor corridor 123.

Analysis
TSMC's Phase II groundbreaking cements a four-plant, single-county packaging cluster rather than a diversified footprint, deepening Chiayi's role as the physical chokepoint for chip-on-wafer-on-substrate capacity feeding Nvidia and other AI chip designers, and Wu's Chiayi-Tainan-Hsinchu-Taichung corridor framing signals Taipei is treating that concentration as strategic asset rather than supply-chain risk. The NT$300 billion output and 9,000-job projections describe the fully built four-plant park, not incremental Phase II capacity alone. Focus Taiwan and Central News Agency's shared wire lineage against Reuters' independently sourced but divergent plant-count account leaves the Phase I production-ramp timeline only partially corroborated. Wu's remarks may read as much as a political showcase before legislators and the county commissioner as an industrial capacity announcement.

4 sources

TSMC to add 2 advanced chip packaging plants in Chiayi, Taiwan minister says - Reuters
TSMC to build 3 more advanced packaging fabs in Chiayi Science Park - Focus Taiwan
TSMC to build 3 new packaging fabs in Chiayi Science Park's Phase II - Taipei Times
嘉科二期台積電再設3座廠打造全球先進封裝重鎮 - Central News Agency (CNA)