TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, will decide this week whether to invest in chip designer Arm Holdings’ blockbuster initial public offering (IPO), Chairman Mark Liu said on Wednesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the SEMICON Taiwan summit, Liu also said operations at TSMC’s massive plant in the U.S. state of Arizona had seen “tremendous” improvement and that he was confident the facility would be a success.
“Arm is an important element of our ecosystem, our technology and our customers’ ecosystem. We want it to be successful, we want it to be healthy. That’s the bottom line,” Liu said.
Pressed on when a decision may come, he said “this week”, adding that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) was still evaluating the matter.
SoftBank Group’s Arm Holdings launched the roadshow for its IPO on Tuesday. The chip designer hopes to convince investors it is worth as much as $52 billion in this year’s biggest share sale.
Arm has already signed up other major clients as cornerstone investors in its IPO, including Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and Samsung Electronics.
Shrugging off worries over progress at TSMC’s Arizona plant due to a lack of skilled workers, Liu said he was confident the facility would be successful.
“I just came from Arizona last month. Any project of that new fertile ground will have some learning curve. In the past five months the improvement has been tremendous. I’m sure it will be a very successful project,” he said.
In July, TSMC said production due to start next year at its first chip fabrication facility, or fab, in Arizona would be delayed until 2025 due to a shortage of specialist workers and it was sending technicians from Taiwan to train local staff.
TSMC is investing $40 billion in the project, supporting Washington’s plans for more chipmaking at home.
As part of an overseas expansion, the company is also investing 3.5 billion euros ($3.76 billion) to build a factory in Germany which Liu said would focus on supplying the automotive industry. Germany is home to major car makers like Volkswagen.
“We are still applying for subsidies from the German government and the EU, it’s in process, but it’s all very smooth,” he said.
Shares of TSMC closed down 0.4% on Wednesday, in line with the broader index.
Reuters