TSMC to begin equipment move-in at its biggest CoWoS packaging plant in Taiwan in April 2025

TSMC will reportedly begin equipment move-in at its biggest CoWoS advanced packaging and testing plant -- AP8 -- in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) in April 2025, according to the latest reports.

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The company will have 2000 production line machines installed by the end of 2025, providing a huge boost to equipment makers, with TSMC's single largest advanced packaging plant and its production capacity being "very urgent" in the face of all this high-end chip demand.

TSMC's new CoWoS advanced packaging is in short supply, with production capacity doubled this year at its current factories in Nanke, Zhongke, and Zhunan. This year, TSMC is expected to double the production capacity of CoWoS again, with recent reports that the company is increasing prices of CoWoS advanced packaging by 15-20% this year.

• Read more: TSMC has price increases of 15-20% for CoWoS advanced packaging in 2025
• Read more: TSMC could build CoWoS plants in the US and Japan because of AI demand
• Read more: This is what 2.5D aka CoWoS advanced packaging looks like: GPU logic die, HBM, interposer

In a report from LTN, we're hearing that supply chain manufacturers estimate that TSMC's new AP8 plant will begin installation in April 2025, and even if Taiwan's installation efficiency is very fast, it will probably not be complete until the end of 2025. The CoWoS advanced packaging plant has the largest number of installed machines, and should be a great supplement for factory management and equipment manufacturers reports LTN.

Yaxiang is a major clean room and electromechanical engineering company, recently holding a press release to confirm the company has received an order for the dismantling project of TSMC's AP8 plant. Yaxiang said that the AP8 facility is 3 stories high, with an area 4x larger than the previous factory area, and the production capacity is "very large".

However, due to customer demand (AI chips) the pre-production work is very short, while planning, design, quotation, and dismantling operations and scheduling are all happening at the same time. The time is "very urgent" and it is the first production expansion project to be completed in such a short time in the past 10 years, adds LTN.