TSMC is buying chipmaking equipment at a pace that would have seemed absurd just 18 months ago. The company’s quarterly demand for semiconductor manufacturing tools has climbed to roughly 1.9 times what was projected back in December 2025, according to Deputy Co-COO Cliff Hou, who shared the figure at the Semicon Taiwan 2026 conference on September 2.
Building at breakneck speed
TSMC is currently constructing nearly 20 wafer fabrication plants at the same time. Thirteen of those are in Taiwan, with another five to six spread across overseas locations. That construction pace is roughly four to five times what the company would normally undertake.
Even at that tempo, TSMC says it’s struggling to keep up. The company has flagged a persistent shortage of construction workers and supply constraints on equipment deliveries as bottlenecks slowing its expansion.
The capacity targets reflect that urgency. TSMC is aiming to produce 180,000 wafers per month on its advanced 3 nm process node by the end of 2026.
