According to the Industrial and Commercial Times, there are rumors in the market that TSMC intends to invest over 30 billion New Taiwan Dollars to acquire AUO’s two old-generation panel factories, L7 and L5C, located in the Central Science Park, adjacent to TSMC’s facilities, to reserve space for large-size packaging such as CoPoS and FOPLP. Informed sources indicate that TSMC has sent personnel to complete on-site audits, and AUO plans to prioritize the disposal of the two factories, aiming to submit to the board of directors in October, with an estimated completion of production line relocation and factory vacating by the end of the first quarter next year. Neither TSMC nor AUO has confirmed this transaction.

Semiconductor industry analysts suggest that TSMC is extending from the A14 advanced process and advanced packaging to the COUPE silicon photonics platform, leveraging its role as a hub for precision optical components in Taichung to build the Central Science Park into a CPO ecosystem. TSMC’s Central Science Park already has Fab 15A primarily using the 28-nanometer process, which can support silicon interposer manufacturing; the second phase of the Central Science Park, Fab 25, is planned to build four A14 wafer fabs, with the first two already entering steel structure construction, and the first factory aims to be completed before April 2027. The existing advanced packaging and testing facility AP5 in the Central Science Park has already begun CoWoS production, and in the future, it will integrate electronic and photonic chips through the COUPE platform.

On the optical side, Largan Precision has recently acquired land and factories in Nantun, Taichung, and the nearby precision machinery cluster, with three transactions totaling approximately 2.568 billion, interpreted by the market as a warm-up for CPO mass production. The company has obtained its first mass production order for fiber optic arrays, with the first automated trial production line aiming to be completed by the end of the third quarter, and mass production expected as early as mid-2027, while also laying out micro-lens arrays and integrated FAUs.