Infineon Says TSMC Needs a Second European Fab

TSMC hasn’t even finished building its first European factory, and one of its key partners is already pushing for a second one.

Infineon, one of three external shareholders in TSMC’s European subsidiary ESMC, holds a 10 percent stake in the joint venture. Speaking at the Bavaria Semiconductor Conference in Munich, Infineon’s executive director of production Alexander Gorski made his position clear: TSMC’s next move in Europe needs to be a fab using smaller line-width process technologies.

ESMC’s first fab is under construction in Dresden, Germany, with total investment exceeding €10 billion. The facility, which broke ground in August 2024, is targeting equipment installation in 2027. Once operational, it will produce chips using 28/22nm planar CMOS and 16/12nm FinFET transistor technology, with a planned monthly capacity of 40,000 wafers.

Those are mature and mid-range nodes by today’s standards. Gorski’s call for a second fab with finer line-width processes suggests Infineon and other European chip buyers are thinking ahead — they’ll need access to more advanced manufacturing closer to home, not just the legacy nodes Dresden will deliver.