TSMC is building roughly 20 wafer fabs simultaneously, a construction pace four to five times its normal level, as AI demand keeps outstripping capacity. Taiwan hosts 13 of the projects, with five or six more planned abroad.
The buildout has pushed the company’s quarterly purchases of chipmaking equipment to almost double what they were 18 months ago, according to figures cited around SEMICON Taiwan. The pace itself is hitting limits: TSMC points to construction-labor shortages and tight equipment deliveries as the brakes on its growth.
The targets themselves show how much is riding on the expansion. By the close of 2026, monthly output on the advanced 3nm node is targeted at roughly 180,000 wafers. Capital spending for this year is guided to $60B-$64B, with 70 to 80 percent earmarked for advanced nodes, led by 3nm.
The company has been upfront that AI demand will outrun advanced-node output well into the late 2020s. The tool buying spree is straining suppliers too, which face their own lead-time limits even as they try to match the industry’s fastest-ever capacity expansion.
