Posted 2/28/2024, 12:24:03 PM
TSMC founder skeptical of reports of massive demand for dedicated AI chip fabs
- TSMC founder Morris Chang says unnamed customers have requested up to 10 new fabs to produce AI chips, indicating huge demand
- Chang says customers are requesting enough capacity for tens of thousands of wafers or tens of fabs, which he finds hard to believe
- A new gigafab with 100,000 wafer capacity costs over $20 billion and takes years to build; 10 fabs would cost over $200 billion
- OpenAI CEO apparently trying to raise trillions to build AI chip fabs, but plan seems economically unviable
- While AI chip production will increase, 10 new leading-edge fabs solely for AI chips is unlikely anytime soon