Taiwan’s chip giant TSMC is expanding its footprint in Europe with a new design center in Munich and by joining a tech coalition investing in a new US$11 billion chip plant in Dresden.
00:00Taiwanese chip giant TSMC is expanding its footprint in Europe.
00:05The chipmaker says it will open a new design center in Munich by late 2025,
00:10supporting high-performance chip development for AI, automotive and industrial uses.
00:16TSMC is also part of a tech coalition investing in a new US$11 billion plant in Dresden,
00:23alongside Infineon, NXP and Bosch.
00:26executives say the new Munich hub could play a key role in Europe's semiconductor ambitions
00:31by offering advanced design and AI-ready capabilities.
00:36The announcements come as Europe scrambles to catch up in a global AI race.
00:42For more on what these new investments in Germany might mean for TSMC, Europe and the global chip industry,
00:48Ries Air spoke to Marco Mesger, a memory chip expert and chief operating officer at Numanda.
00:54Why is TSMC choosing to open this design center and new plant in Germany now?
01:02And what strategic advantage might this give them in the European markets?
01:06Munich has two of the best universities in Germany, the LMU and TUM.
01:14And these universities, they have like a flow of good engineers and designers.
01:20So that's also the reason why Apple has invested $1 billion in a design center in Europe.
01:27Why Bosch, Infineon, NXP, they all have around Munich like design centers.
01:32And keep in mind, in Munich, we have BMW, automotive, Audi is not far away.
01:39So there's a lot of connections also with the type of customers what TSMC is looking forward to fill in the factory in Dresden.
01:48What role could the design center in Munich play in helping Europe catch up in this global AI race?
01:55There's a term which says AI everywhere.
01:58And this AI everywhere means literally everywhere, in every type of application, in every type of household application you have, everywhere.
02:06Now, this artificial intelligence does not always need like this crazy power, what an NVIDIA chip does.
02:13And I definitely think that this is kind of an entry point in Germany to be able to have a design center there on top of the chip companies we have already.
02:25Plus, we also have a manufacturing site in Dresden where we can do this.
02:30And we also have some packaging sites like in MCOR in Portugal, who is also able to package besides TSMC.
02:37So it's a start, but I think it's not something where Europe immediately competes and can have like a similar kind of CPUs or GPUs, AI processor like in the USA or like in Taiwan is produced.
02:50But for our market segment, definitely a very good boost to make AI related ecosystem.
02:58Can we expect any technological marvels to be coming out of Germany anytime soon in regards to chips?
03:04I think it's specifically in the industries, right?
03:07It's like in automotive, right?
03:08It's like in automotive, right?
03:08ADAS, autonomous driving.
03:10Do you also need very powerful chips in order to manage this?
03:14Do you need a system architecture, you know, which is supporting all of this?
03:19And I think TSMC was a big win for Europe and especially for Germany.
03:23And coming to this cluster in Dresden where you have already several companies, I mean, Bosch, XFAB, there's a lot of companies already there who nurture the system.
03:34That's very, very good for Germany in order to play a role in the next wave of AI.
03:41I think the first wave of AI, this is basically going on.
03:45It's very difficult to jump in there.
03:48But the second wave where you have AI everywhere, I think this is a very good entry point for Europe.
03:54That was Marco Mesger, a memory chip expert and COO at New Manda.
