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Chips · Jul 15, 2026, 05:33 AM · 5 sources

TSMC breaks ground on Phase II Chiayi advanced packaging plants; CoWoS capacity to grow 80%+ through 2027

TSMC announced Phase II expansion of its Chiayi Science Park advanced packaging cluster on July 13, with two new CoWoS (chip-on-wafer-on-substrate) facilities to join the two Phase I plants already in mass production. Phase II will add a third and fourth facility to the site, with the park eventually expected to generate over NT$300 billion (~$9.35 billion) in annual output and create roughly 9,000 jobs once all four plants are operational.

TSMC is allocating up to 20% of its planned 2026 capex ($52–56 billion) to advanced packaging as CoWoS capacity shortage becomes the gating factor for AI chip delivery. The company projects 80%+ annual growth in CoWoS and SoIC packaging capacity through 2027 to meet insatiable demand from NVIDIA, Google, and other accelerator makers. June 2026 reported yields on the newest 5.5-reticle-size CoWoS exceeding 98%, with larger 14-reticle architectures planned for 2028.

The expansion underscores how advanced packaging—not wafer fab alone—has become the critical constraint in AI chip supply. For architects: CoWoS remains a multi-year lead-time item; early design wins with TSMC are prerequisites for 2027–28 accelerator launches. Chiayi Phase II completion timeline not yet disclosed by TSMC itself, only via government announcements.

Sources

Everything this brief rests on
  1. 01 Primary source qz.com
  2. 02 qz.com qz.com
  3. 03 finance.yahoo.com finance.yahoo.com
  4. 04 thenextweb.com thenextweb.com
  5. 05 focustaiwan.tw focustaiwan.tw