Chip making is an expensive undertaking. For those figuring out how to make it less so, the continuing shortage has actually been even more painful.
The past year has brought an explosion in capital spending by the companies that manufacture semiconductor products. The biggest numbers have come at the top of the pyramid: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing , or TSMC, reported Thursday that capital expenditures for 2021 totaled a whopping $30 billion—up 66% from the previous year and nearly triple the company’s average over the previous five, according to FactSet. Intel Corp. and the semiconductor side of Samsung are likewise expected to report double-digit jumps in capital spending for the year, with the total bill for the three projected to come in around $80 billion.
