Taiwanese chip giant TSMC chose Germany as the location for its its first European production facility. Lithuanian Economy and Innovation Minister Ausrine Armonaite says she knew about the chipmaker’s plans beforehand, and confirms that Lithuanian semiconductor companies that have received Taiwanese technology or support are already implementing projects.
TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer from Taiwan, already had plans to set up a large factory in an economy that apparently has more to offer to such a project. Taiwan is also actively cooperating with other Lithuanian companies.
Lithuanian company Teltonika that has a business plan and has already started implementing it and building a semiconductor production line in Lithuania. In January, Teltonika IoT Group, a Lithuanian developer of IoT solutions, signed a 14 million euro agreement with Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute to share semiconductor chip technology.
After three Lithuanian companies – Teltonika, SoliTek and Oxipit – received Taiwanese funding for joint projects, Armonaite said at the beginning of this year that further direct Taiwanese investment in manufacturing was also being negotiated.
Last week, TSMC announced its decision to invest 3.8 billion US dollars (3.5 billion euros) into a news chip production facility in Germany, saying that total investment into the plant – TSMC’s first in Europe – will exceed 10 billion euros.
