On October 23^rd, TSMC poured NTD 3.21 billion to buy the 14.32 hectares of land in Zhunan Science Park for establishing the R&D and production base of 18-inch wafer with 7 nm process. The base is expected to be constructed in 2016 and equipments installed in 2017. TSMC becomes the world’s first semiconductor plant that brought out a blueprint of 18-inch wafer plant.

Lately, TSMC has cooperated with Intel and Samsung on setting up lithography equipment plant Advanced Semiconductor Material Lithography (ASML), accelerating the development of 18-inch wafer and EUV. This and the generous land buying are considered by the insiders as the further layout of advanced process.

At present, the most advanced process technology of TSMC is 28nm. The 7nm technology is 4 generations ahead of 28 nm. Together with 18-inch wafer, the technology can make every chip lighter, thinner and smaller, and produce more wafers per unit, significantly reducing production cost.

A director of TSMC revealed that they bought the land for the reason that there is no land in Xinzhu Science Park for them to build plants. In response to the emerging of the next generation product technology, TSMC must make preparation for the land as soon as possible.
 
TSMC becomes the global first semiconductor plant that plans to establish 18-inch wafer plant, ahead of such rivals as Intel, Samsung, GlobalFoundries and UMC. The capital expenditure of TSMC this year rose to USD 8.5 billion. It is estimated its capital expenditure in the next year will continue to go upward. To expand the production lines of advanced process via high capital expenditure is precisely the strategy that TSMC adopted to stay on top of competitors.