TSMC construction workers find another unexploded bomb from World War II at its chip factory

The remains of an unexploded bomb from World War II were unearthed over the weekend at the old Kaohsiung Refinery, which is undergoing environmental remediation ahead of the construction for TSMC's new semiconductor plant.

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The Kaohsiung City government's Construction Office reports that construction workers in the former refinery's storage tank dug up the unexploded bomb at around 11:30am, immediately notifying the Taiwan military. Military officials quickly arrived at TSMC's construction site, determining that the bomb posed no immediate safety threat, and then removed the unexploded bomb an hour later.

The 8th Army Corps said in a press release that it had removed an unexploded aerial bomb from TSMC's construction site in Kaohsiung's Nanzih District, with the bomb appearing to be from an "early period" but doesn't have a visible batch number or any other identifying marks on it, as it was highly corroded.

This is also not the first unexploded bomb found at TSMC's fab plant sites, which are likely from US airstrikes during World War II, as there were previous discoveries at the same site in August and November of 2024. The old oil refinery site was the target of US bombing runs during the war, as Taiwan was controlled by Japan's Imperial Army at the time.

TSMC is busy building five state-of-the-art semiconductor facilities in the area, where they will make chips using 2nm and more advanced technology (1.4nm and smaller). The Kaohsiung site is central to the strategic plans of TSMC and its future, with this being the third unexploded bomb discovery, we could expect more discoveries in the future as construction speeds up.