Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its board of directors has approved the issuance of US$1 billion of unsecured bonds in Taiwan and up to US$8 billion of bonds in the US to fund its capacity expansion.

The chipmaker told investors last month that it plans to invest US$8 billion in a 12-inch fab in Arizona over the next three years, a part of its US$12 billion investment in the US from this year to 2029.

The Arizona fab is under construction and is to start producing 5-nanometer chips in the first quarter of 2024, it said.

TSMC has raised its capital spending for this year to US$30 billion, with 80 percent of the amount earmarked for advanced technology capacity expansion that includes 3-nanometer, 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer technologies in Taiwan.

The board approved capital appropriations of about US$17.57 billion for the installation of advanced, mature and specialty technology capacity, as well as the installation and upgrade of advanced packaging capacity, TSMC said in a statement.

The funds will also cover research and development, and capital expenditure for next quarter.

The directors also ratified a donation of 5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to the Centers for Disease Control to help curb a domestic virus outbreak.

The overall cost of the donation is estimated at US$175 million, including vaccine procurement, cold-chain logistics, handling services and insurance, it said.

The board also approved a proposal to pay a cash dividend of NT$2.75 per share for the second quarter of this year.

In a separate statement, TSMC said its revenue contracted 16.1 percent to NT$124.56 billion (US$4.48 billion) last month from NT$148.47 billion in June.

On an annual basis, revenue expanded 17.5 percent from NT$105.96 billion.

Consolidated revenue expanded 18.1 percent to NT$859.11 billion in the first seven months of this year, compared with NT$727.26 billion in the same period last year.


●Origin：Taipei Times
●Link：https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2021/08/11/2003762388