Founder and chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) Morris Chang recently made known that the company will start constructing its advanced 3nm wafer fab located at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) in 2020, and not in the U.S. as they once hinted at.

The supply chain report noted that "TSMC is confident that the Taiwan government will be committed to settling all the water, power and land supply issues prior to the construction of the foundry's 3nm fab, said Chang. TSMC also remains confident the government will assist the establishment of the new fab with a complete package of measures, Chang added." Meaning that their slight threat at opening a plant in the U.S. was good enough to squeeze more out the government in Taiwan in negotiations.

The report further noted that "Chang also talked about the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) to TSMC's competitiveness. There are already mobile devices featuring AI capabilities, and the technology is expected to be used widely, such as healthcare applications, where AI could make a significant impact, Chang indicated.

TSMC has been investing in AI for its target markets including mobile computing, automotive electronics, IoT and high-performance computing, Chang noted. TSMC is gearing up to provide advanced process technologies and sufficient production capacities for more AI applications, which will make a positive contribution to company growth in the future, Chang said."

In July Patently Apple posted a report that provided more details about TSMC's focus shift to AI titled "TSMC Entering CoWoS Technology Market Powering AI and Autonomous Vehicles for Nvidia, Google and Likely Apple."

With a 3nm plant coming in 2020-2021 and 5nm processors set for 2019-2020, the chances of 7nm coming to market in 2018-2019 are high. In fact there's a chance that next year's iPhone could sport a 7nm processor that will push Apple's new Bionic chip to a whole new level with advanced AI capabilities.

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