Taiwan TSMC: "Even Building 20 New Factories Would Not Meet Semiconductor Demand"

[Financial News] Amid continued debate over a possible "bubble" in the global artificial intelligence (AI) and related semiconductor industries, claims have emerged that semiconductors needed by the AI industry remain in short supply.
According to Taiwan media outlets, including China Times, Hou Yongqing, senior vice president of the world's largest semiconductor foundry, TSMC, and chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA), made the claim at the CEO Summit of the SEMICON Taiwan 2026 semiconductor exhibition held in Taipei, Taiwan, on the 2nd.
Hou Yongqing said the semiconductor industry is facing a surge in demand unseen in the past 30 years. He estimated that demand for equipment purchases in July this year had jumped 1.9 times compared with the end of last year.
He explained that TSMC is currently building 13 semiconductor factories in Taiwan and has begun construction at five or six sites overseas, bringing the total number of production facilities being built simultaneously around the world to about 20. Despite constructing these new facilities, he stressed that production capacity still cannot keep pace with demand. The current scale of construction is four to five times larger than in the past.
He explained that the biggest obstacle to expanding semiconductor production is a shortage of construction workers, adding that Taiwan and the United States are facing the same situation. Hou Yongqing stressed that TSMC is actively working to introduce AI into its production lines to improve capacity and prevent the leakage of technological secrets.
[email protected] Jong-won Park Reporter