“TSMC Racing to 1nm, Investing $32 Billion for Fab: Report”, 2022-11-22 (; backlinks):
TSMC preps to make considerable investments in new fabs…TSMC fabs that will make chips using its 1nm-class production nodes will be located near Longtan Science Park near Taoyuan, said Shen Jong-chin, vice prime minister of Taiwan, in an interview with Economic Daily.
…The vice prime minister estimates that TSMC must invest around $32 billion in a 1nm-capable fab. That’s up from around $20 billion for N5 and N3 (5nm and 3nm-class) fabs that the company currently operates.
So far, TSMC has outlined plans to start making chips using its N2 (2nm-class) fabrication technology in the second half of 2025, which means that the first ICs made in the process will likely emerge on the market in 2026. N2 will be another long node for TSMC, and the company will offer multiple versions of the node, including those with gate-all-around transistors and backside power delivery.
TSMC’s N1 will follow N2 several years down the road. We do not know TSMC’s exact plans concerning N1, but we think this fabrication process will be used to make ICs in 2027–2028. By the time ASML rolls out its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools with High-NA. These will be costly scanners, making N1-capable fab very expensive too.