Over the past weekend, Taiwanese industry moles told UDN Money that TSMC’s ‘entire CoWoS series of advanced packaging products’ is fully booked, driven by orders reportedly from NVIDIA, Google, Amazon, and MediaTek. The report highlights various flavors of Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate, including CoWoS-L and CoWoS-S processes, and says a surge in requests has prompted TSMC to rethink plans beyond expansions of first-party facilities, which the company has primarily targeted at CoWoS-L. To meet what are described as lofty VIP client requests, company leadership is reportedly considering stronger ties with third-party chip packagers to handle overflow demand.
UDN Money cites Counterpoint research, which predicts that ASE Technology (in 2026) will benefit greatly from taking on some of TSMC’s ‘spillover.’ Insiders and trackers quoted in the coverage describe the situation as a temporary capacity crunch that TSMC expects to ease within the next year as supply-demand dynamics adjust. The narrative also notes competitive pressure from Intel’s emerging capabilities and rumors that Apple and Qualcomm are evaluating Team Blue’s advanced packaging processes as alternative or complementary sources, a development that could influence customer decisions.
Locally, TSMC’s Arizona hub is called out for a major shortfall: a complete lack of on-site advanced packaging. Sources say company leaders are looking into the repurposing of a planned sixth phase fabrication plant (P6 fab), which could pave the way for a ‘fast track’ deployment of US-based CoWoS activities. The combination of planned first-party expansions, potential third-party partnerships, and a possible P6 pivot frames TSMC’s current response as a mix of internal scaling and external outsourcing aimed at keeping major Artificial Intelligence hardware customers supplied while the broader supply-demand balance normalizes.
