Asian Tech Press (Dec 13) -- According to media reports, TSMC, the chip foundry that has announced the construction of factories in the United States and Japan, is also considering building a factory in Europe, and an executive has revealed that they are in talks with Germany about a potential factory.

The news was revealed by TSMC's senior vice president for Europe & Asia Sales Lora Ho. Building a factory in Europe is part of TSMC's factory expansion plan.

Lora Ho revealed that their negotiations with Germany are still in progress, and no decision has been made yet. Thus, it is not clear whether TSMC will eventually build a factory in Germany, and even if it does, it is not sure where it will be built.

The news that TSMC is considering building a plant in Germany emerged in June this year. TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said at a shareholders meeting in June that they had begun evaluating potential plant construction in Germany.

Lora Ho said they need to consider various factors, including subsidies, market demand, and local human resources. Still, she also revealed that they have not yet negotiated with Germany on subsidies.

If TSMC determines to build a factory in Germany, it will be their third factory in the past two years. In May last year, TSMC announced that it would build a factory in Arizona, USA, with a planned investment of $12 billion by 2029, using a 5nm process to foundry chips for related customers, which is expected to go into production in 2024.

Last month, TSMC announced a partnership with Sony to build a factory in Japan. The initial investment is expected at $ 7 billion, and the goal is to put it into operation at the end of 2024.