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A Tesla Inc Cybercab driverless car is displayed during a preview at the company’s delivery center in Hong Kong yesterday. Photo: Bloomberg

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is accelerating capacity expansion fivefold this year, but it is still unable to keep up with the booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said yesterday. This year alone, the company is building 25 chip manufacturing fabs and advanced packaging facilities worldwide, including 13 plants in Taiwan, which is unprecedented, Hou said at a CEO Summit fireside chat at Semicon Taiwan in Taipei.

In the past, the company was able to build five or six factories a year, said Hou, who is also chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry

EXPANSION: The 3-hectare site would include small clean rooms and laboratories as well as a world-class training base for advanced packaging talent, the company said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is to establish a presence in the Baipu Industrial Park (白埔產業園區) in Kaohsiung to accelerate the testing and validation of semiconductor materials and equipment, a company executive said on Tuesday. The company is working with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Kaohsiung City Government on the plan, which is expected to improve validation efficiency by 25 to 50 percent, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC global summit held ahead of the Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opened in Taipei yesterday.

TSMC would also conduct

Visitors look at a 64-qubit superconducting quantum computer on display at the Fujitsu booth at the Semicon Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday.

Taiwanese aircraft maker Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空) yesterday announced that it has secured a 20-year partnership agreement with Canada-based Bombardier Inc. The two companies held a ceremony in Taipei yesterday to exchange signed copies of the agreement, launching the 20-year partnership under which AIDC would supply cockpit and forward fuselage structural components for Bombardier’s super-midsize Challenger 3500 business jets, the Taiwanese company said.

The agreement represents a new milestone in cooperation between the two companies, which dates back to 1999, with the Taiwanese supplier having provided rear fuselage structural components for more than 1,000 Challenger 3500 aircraft, it