Devastating earthquake spares TSMC's $150M chip-making tools, Apple's not facing a chip shortage
Taiwan's devastating April 3 earthquake – strongest in 25 years – kills 9 people, 50 missing.
The business was also affected. Although the world's leading contract chip foundry, TSMC, is located on the opposite side of the island from where the center of the earthquake hit, the Taiwanese company had to evacuate workers.
This, in theory, could lead to chip supply shortages for TSMC's top customers such as Apple, MediaTek, AMD, and Qualcomm.
Mere hours after the tragedy and after assuring that the site is safe, TSMC allowed workers to return to the assembly lines. Then, on Thursday, TSMC said its overall tool recovery of its fabrication facilities exceeded 80% as of Thursday (via Reuters).
Operations were partially impacted by the damage caused to a few tools at some facilities, TSMC announced, adding that those did not include critical chip-making tools such as its extreme ultraviolet lithography tools.
The business was also affected. Although the world's leading contract chip foundry, TSMC, is located on the opposite side of the island from where the center of the earthquake hit, the Taiwanese company had to evacuate workers.
Mere hours after the tragedy and after assuring that the site is safe, TSMC allowed workers to return to the assembly lines. Then, on Thursday, TSMC said its overall tool recovery of its fabrication facilities exceeded 80% as of Thursday (via Reuters).
Operations were partially impacted by the damage caused to a few tools at some facilities, TSMC announced, adding that those did not include critical chip-making tools such as its extreme ultraviolet lithography tools.
These UV lithography tools are produced by Dutch firm ASML Holding and could cost upwards of $150 million.
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