Reports Suggest C.C. Wei Plans First Trip to China in Two and a Half Years to Meet with Companies Including Alibaba; TSMC Denies Claims.

Against the backdrop of increasingly tense geopolitical relations and the U.S.-China semiconductor standoff, TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei is reportedly preparing to undertake his first visit to mainland China in two and a half years. According to a report by the *Commercial Times*, Wei is expected to meet with several major mainland Chinese chip design companies during this visit—a group anticipated to include major enterprises such as Alibaba. However, the latest updates indicate that TSMC has denied these reports, stating that no such visit is taking place.

C.C. Wei is scheduled to attend the TSMC Open Innovation Platform (OIP) Ecosystem Forum in Nanjing on December 4, 2025. He will be accompanied by two vice presidents: Kevin Zhang (Senior Vice President of Business Development and Overseas Operations) and Y.P. Hou (Senior Vice President of Eurasian Business and Technology Research). According to the agenda posted on the company's website, this year's forum will highlight TSMC's latest advancements in cutting-edge process technologies—including technologies such as A16 and N2—as well as its newest chip packaging platforms, such as InFO (Integrated Fan-Out), CoWoS (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate), and TSMC-SoIC (System-on-Integrated-Chips).

If this trip proceeds as scheduled, it would represent TSMC's latest initiative to foster cooperation within the Chinese market, even as U.S. restrictions on chip technology remain stringent. Reports note that Wei's last visit to mainland China took place in 2023, when he led a delegation to attend the TSMC Technology Symposium in Shanghai, accompanied by Kevin Zhang and Y.P. Hou.

As of the third quarter of 2025, mainland China remained TSMC's third-largest market, contributing 8% of the company's revenue—a figure representing a decline from 9% in the second quarter and 11% a year earlier.

However, the *Commercial Times* notes that mainland Chinese media project the region's chip demand will reach between 100 billion and 200 billion units by 2025—a scale that continues to present substantial opportunities for TSMC.

Notably, if C.C. Wei’s visit materializes, it would coincide with the expiration of the exemption granted to the company’s Nanjing wafer fab. According to a report by *Bloomberg*, Washington informed TSMC in September 2025 that it would terminate the special license permitting the export of advanced chip manufacturing equipment to Fab 16 by year-end; this measure mirrors similar restrictions imposed on Samsung and SK Hynix.

As explained by *Tom's Hardware*, TSMC currently operates two wafer fabs in mainland China: the 200mm Fab 10 in Shanghai and the 300mm Fab 16 in Nanjing. Fab 10 produces legacy chips utilizing 150nm and older process technologies, while Fab 16 manufactures chips at the 12nm, 16nm, and 28nm nodes; reports indicate that production at the 16nm node and below remains subject to U.S. regulatory restrictions.

With the U.S. poised to revoke TSMC’s special export license, this move will require the company’s U.S.-based suppliers to obtain separate government approvals for future shipments—a process in which any delays could potentially disrupt the facility's operations.

Reprinted from iJiwei