Taiwan parks nearing capacity

Taiwan is racing to add land and utilities to its science parks as chipmakers fill existing sites faster than planners expected. (digitimes.com) The pressure is coming from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the island’s biggest chipmaker, and from a wider semiconductor supply chain expanding around it. In 2025, Taiwan’s three major science parks posted combined revenue of NT$5.8 trillion, up 21.83% from a year earlier. (cna.com.tw) The Southern Taiwan Science Park grew fastest, with 2025 revenue rising 34.26% to NT$2.97 trillion. Hsinchu reached NT$1.7 trillion and Central Taiwan reached NT$1.13 trillion, both also up from 2024. (taipeitimes.com) Science parks are Taiwan’s purpose-built industrial zones for chip fabs, packaging plants, water systems and power links. When those parks run short of land, companies cannot add clean rooms, utility plants or logistics space on the timetable they want. (english.ey.gov.tw) That squeeze is showing up across the map. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is pushing a new fab at the Tainan campus in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, with construction expected to start in 2026 and completion targeted for 2028 on a 15.46-hectare site. (taipeitimes.com) In Chiayi, the second phase of the Southern Taiwan Science Park cleared an initial environmental review on January 13, 2026. The plan would add about 89 hectares and three more factories because the Chiayi campus is already at capacity, officials said. (taipeitimes.com) Officials say the new land is aimed in part at advanced packaging, the final stage that connects and stacks chips so they can be used in servers and artificial intelligence systems. Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau Director-General Cheng Hsiu-jung said Chiayi’s expansion is tied to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s packaging build-out. (taipeitimes.com) The government has been planning for this bottleneck for more than a year. A March 2024 Executive Yuan policy paper called for linking Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli with the southern cluster in Tainan and Kaohsiung into a continuous tech corridor across western Taiwan. (english.ey.gov.tw) The bet is that chip demand will keep absorbing new capacity. The National Science and Technology Council said integrated circuits generated more than NT$4.8 trillion in 2025 revenue inside the parks, up 26.8%, driven by artificial intelligence and high-performance computing demand. (cna.com.tw) The constraint now is less demand than buildable space with enough water, electricity and transport access. Taiwan is moving faster on park expansion because the semiconductor cluster is still growing, and the parks it depends on are getting crowded. (digitimes.com)