TSMC mulls making advanced AI memory chips: report

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is considering broadening its business to include advanced memorychip manufacturing, The Information reported on Friday, a move that would give the world’s largest chipmaker an even bigger share of the artificial intelligence (AI) hardware supply chain.

TSMC began drafting plans to produce a particular type of advanced memory chips, known as 3D DRAM, at the request of Nvidia Corp, its biggest customer, The Information reported, citing two people familiar with the plans.

The company is also exploring acquiring a plant and converting it for memory production, the report said.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co logo is displayed at a news conference in Taipei on July 16.

Photo: Lam Yik Fei, Bloomberg

The push is helmed by Hsu Kuo-chin (徐國晉), a vice president who oversees advanced packaging at TSMC, it said.

TSMC said in a statement that the company is focused “on our core business at all times,” adding that it is dedicated to manufacturing chips designed by other companies.

While TSMC did not address memory chips specifically, the company said its mission is to be “the trusted technology and capacity provider” of logic chips, which process data as opposed to storing it.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There is a severe memorychip shortage due to a boom in demand for AI hardware, sending prices soaring and prompting chip designers such as Nvidia and Apple Inc to seek additional sourcing. Apple raised the prices for some of its products earlier this year, citing rising memory costs.