TSMC recently announced that it has approved a budget of approximately NT$129.8 billion (USD 4.3 billion, USD1= NT$30.3), NT$ 50.5 billion (USD 1.7 billion) of which will be used for new plant construction while the remaining NT$ 79.3 billion (USD2.62 billion) will be for other purposes such as advanced production capacity expansion and upgrade, and advanced packaging capacity expansion, according to a press release from TSMC on November 14. The investment has begun from November 2017. On top of that, the capex of TSMC for 2017 has been revised to USD 10.8 billion, up from USD 10 billion.
When it comes to production capacity, TSMC has begun 10nm chip mass production in the second quarter of this year and that have accounted for 10% of its revenue in the third quarter and its proportion of revenue coming from 10nm chips is expected to rise further to more than 20%. In addition, the company is set to mass production 7nm chips in the second quarter of 2018, to be one of growth drivers next year. Meanwhile, 7+ nm chips are expected to tape out in 2018 and enter mass production in 2019, while the mass production of 5+ nm chips is estimated to kick off in 2020 following the trial runs in the first half of 2019.