According to Taiwan's Economic Daily News, TSMC co-COO Cliff Hou said nearly 20 fabs are under construction at once worldwide, and customers have asked whether that can reach 30.

Concept illustration: a hand at the right grips a black rounded frame held sideways, its top bar showing a white tag lettered "tsmc" beside large white letters "TSMC". Inside the frame, a person in a long dark coat stands at the left with hands in pockets, looking up at a wide thought cloud, linked to it by two small bubbles, that holds a dashed outline of a long building with three raised sections; below the cloud a red building with two raised sections is surrounded by scaffolding, with a tower crane standing at its center and a small block hanging from the crane's hook. Printed on the image: Nearly 20 TSMC fabs being built, per Economic Daily News.

The answer to the 30-fab question was no, according to Nystedt's relay, because the industry can't handle that scale yet given labor shortages and other problems at construction sites, an account TSMC hasn't confirmed. Hou said the supply-chain challenge concerns the whole ecosystem. After accidents at two 2nm construction sites, Kaohsiung Fab 22 Phase 4 and Baoshan, TSMC set up an internal committee to strengthen site safety (Economic Daily News). The answer itself comes from Dan Nystedt's English relay (Dan Nystedt, 2026-11-09). Next to watch: TSMC's November 17 supply-chain management forum, where Economic Daily News says the list of top suppliers is rumored to change. How we checked →

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This item ran in the brief of Nov 9, 2026, alongside 14 other items. How we checked it, the quote checks and what was still missing that day are on that issue's How we checked page.

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SecondSource (2026). "According to Taiwan's Economic Daily News, TSMC co-COO Cliff Hou said nearly 20 fabs are under construction at once worldwide, and customers have asked whether that can reach 30.." https://secondsource.io/en/news/2026-11-09-4/. Accessed access date.