Over the past weekend, Taiwanese semiconductor industry moles alleged that the nation's leading foundry service is considering external advanced packaging production avenues. According to UDN Money, TSMC's "entire CoWoS series of advanced packaging products" are fully booked up—with plenty of demand coming from the usual big AI hardware players. Various flavors of Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) exist, including the currently vaunted CoWoS-L and CoWoS-S processes. A surge in orders—reportedly coming from NVIDIA, Google, Amazon, and MediaTek—has supposedly prompted a revised strategy, beyond planned expansions of first-party facilities (primarily CoWoS-L). In order to meet lofty VIP client requests, TSMC leadership could be bolstering relationships with third-party chip packagers. The UDN Money report cites predictions made by Counterpoint, a research company—they reckon that ASE Technology (in 2026) will benefit greatly from taking on some of TSMC's "spillover."

The premier foundry business is expected to establish an improved "supply-demand" within the next year; possibly influenced by Intel's emerging capabilities—rumors have spread about Apple and Qualcomm weighing up Team Blue's advanced packaging processes. If these whispered "backup strategies" come into effect, key customers could switch loyalties by early 2028. Currently, TSMC's Arizona hub fields a massive disadvantage: a complete lack of on-site advanced packaging. Last we heard—from inside trackers—company leadership was looking into the repurposing of a planned sixth phase fabrication plant (P6 fab). This pivot could pave the way for a "fast track" deployment of US-based CoWoS activities.