First it ditched its gallium nitride (GaN) foundry business, and now it appears Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is exiting the 6-inch wafer production market altogether.
According to a report from Commercial Times, the phase out will take place within the next two years and TSMC will also consolidate 8-inch capacity to improve efficiency.
Specifically, TSMC’s 6-inch Fab 2 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and its Fab 5, an 8-inch facility also in Hsinchu, will cease production by the end of 2027. Another report from Liberty Times said TSMC will transfer and upgrade to 12-inch fabs.
Staff from these facilities will potentially be redeployed to staff advanced packaging capabilities in the ramp up of its 12-inch wafer nodes, the report said.
In July of 2025, TSMC said it would exit the GaN chip market citing the low-volume, low-margin business was not part of its strategic future. With mounting pressure from Chinese rivals, TSMC said it would phase out the GaN service by July of 2027. Maybe not a coincidence, as this is about the same time it plans to phase out 6-inch wafer support.
According to reports, none of these moves will be a stress on TSMC’s financial outlook given the company gets the bulk of its revenue from state-of-the-art processing nodes with the most advanced chips being manufactured through the foundry.
Specifically, this is cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) chips, smartphone and server processors.
Much in the same way TSMC exiting the GaN business will help other companies in the same market, this phasing out of 6-inch wafers and decreasing 8-inch wafer nodes will help other foundries and chipmakers supporting the mature process nodes, like Tower Semiconductor, UMC and GlobalFoundries.
