Companies Ramp Up Investment: "More Factories, Faster"

[Anchor]

While concerns about a potential peak in the semiconductor market persist, chipmakers are instead calling for aggressive investment expansion. Following an increase in its U.S. investments, TSMC is reportedly preparing for large-scale factory expansions in Taiwan as well.

Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has the story.

[Reporter]

TSMC has officially announced an additional investment of 150 trillion won in its Arizona plant, citing demand for AI semiconductors as the reason.

[Wendell Huang / CFO of TSMC: We continue to see strong customer demand and multi-year structural demand.]

TSMC stated that it will not miss any opportunities or achievements, making it clear that expanding semiconductor investment is synonymous with opportunity.

Separate from its U.S. operations, local reports suggest the company plans to build up to 25 additional factories in Taiwan over the next five years.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won also repeatedly emphasized the strong demand for semiconductors.

He noted that demand is expected to at least double in the AI sector next year, and grow by more than 50 to 60 percent across the entire semiconductor market, while supply remains nearly stagnant. He added that, ultimately, building factories quickly is the lifeline of the Korean semiconductor industry.

[Chey Tae-won / SK Group Chairman (July 15): Since demand is continuing to explode, there is an urgent need for us to build quickly....]

Regarding concerns that expanding production capacity could end the semiconductor boom, he stated that current semiconductor prices are abnormal and that companies can still make money even if prices drop due to increased supply.

To secure future demand and avoid falling behind in the supply competition, global semiconductor companies are competitively expanding their investments.

[Kim Yang-paeng / Senior Researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade: When competitors are expanding like this, if companies do not expand themselves, their influence will inevitably weaken when the market cycle turns. Therefore, they have no choice but to invest competitively....]

Whether the current growth trend in AI investment can be sustained by the time these new factories become fully operational is expected to be the biggest variable for the semiconductor boom.

Reported by Jeong Seong-jin | Video by Jo Mu-hwan | Graphics by Lee Jong-jung | Video courtesy of Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.