By Tae Kim

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's next chip-manufacturing technology will be a big deal.

On Monday, TSMC held an event with its key suppliers to celebrate a major construction milestone for its Fab 22 in Taiwan. The factory is on schedule to manufacture 2-nanometer chips, in volume, for the company's customers during the second half of this year.

"Today's 2nm capacity expansion ceremony holds significant importance for global semiconductor technology development, marking the successful progress of TSMC's world-leading 2nm process," said Y.P. Chyn, the chip company's co-chief operating officer.

TSMC's American depositary receipts fell 1% in early trading Monday as technology stocks generally declined.

TSMC dominates the market for manufacturing high-end chips. It leads the market for making semiconductors used for AI applications, including chips from Nvidia. The company also manufactures the core processors inside Apple iPhones, Qualcomm mobile chipsets, and processors made by Advanced Micro Devices.

TSMC said its 2nm technology will enable a 10% to 15% increase in speed at the same amount of power consumption, or a 25% to 30% reduction in power at the same speed, compared with its prior- generation N3E technology.

The company estimates the 2nm technology will enable its customers to sell $2 trillion worth of products across major markets within five years of volume 2nm production. That includes areas such as supercomputers, smartphones, and cloud data centers.

Earlier this month, CEO C.C. Wei announced the company's plans to increase U.S. investment by $100 billion to construct three chip factories, two advanced chip-packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The spending would be in addition to the $65 billion already pledged by the company for operations in Arizona, bringing its total investment to $165 billion.

TSMC has yet to reveal when its U.S.-based factories will begin to make 2nm chips. For now, to get the best chip-making technology, customers must use fabs in Taiwan.

Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 31, 2025 12:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.