“Where exactly is Baipu（白埔）?” That has been the first question on the minds of many suppliers in TSMC’s CoWoS supply chain after TSMC Co-Chief Operating Officer Y.P. Chin（秦永沛） said the company plans to establish an advanced packaging validation line in northern Kaohsiung.

In fact, like many of TSMC’s sites in southern Taiwan, the location is another piece of state-owned land originally belonging to Taiwan Sugar Corp. The site was formerly Taiwan Sugar’s “Baipu Farm” and will be developed by the Kaohsiung City Government into an industrial park.

Following the model of Nanzih, it is expected to be transferred to the National Science and Technology Council after TSMC moves in, becoming Kaohsiung’s fourth science park.

More importantly, the two facilities TSMC plans to build there will introduce an R&D model never before used in Taiwan: a CoWoS production line that will not manufacture commercial products, but instead invite equipment suppliers to move in and jointly develop and validate products.

Why is TSMC doing this? The answer begins with a meeting at Semicon Taiwan 2026 that was not on the original agenda.

I got into a taxi at Zuoying High Speed Rail Station, right next to TSMC’s 2-nanometer fab, and headed north along Provincial Highway 1.

After about half an hour, the roadside scenery shifted from green trees and newly built high-rise apartment buildings to villages typical of the Chianan Plain（嘉南平原）.

Following directions from a Taiwan Sugar employee, we turned onto a rural road, passed sprawling melon fields, made another turn, and saw several excavators hurriedly leveling the land.

This is the planned site of Kaohsiung’s “Baipu Industrial Park.” The name comes from Taiwan Sugar’s Baipu Farm, which previously occupied the site.

The park covers a total of 88.73 hectares, roughly half the size of the Southern Taiwan Science Park’s Nanzih site, where TSMC’s 2-nanometer production lines are located.

The park’s launch ceremony is scheduled for next week, on September 21. “Lai Ching-te (the president) will be here,” one construction worker at the site told me excitedly.

Of the total area, 25 hectares have been designated as a “semiconductor advanced equipment and materials testing and validation base.”

What Is the “Baipu Plan”?

This is precisely TSMC’s “Baipu Plan,” which has recently stirred considerable interest across Taiwan’s semiconductor industry—TSMC will establish an advanced packaging validation line here and invite suppliers to move in alongside it.

The concept is somewhat similar to the world-renowned 12-inch R&D line operated by Belgium’s IMEC, only on a smaller scale.

In early July, TSMC Co-Chief Operating Officer Y.P. Chin hosted a dinner in Taipei for CoWoS equipment suppliers. According to industry sources, the key message at the dinner was a request for suppliers to support the “Baipu Plan.”

(To read this exclusive story in full, visit the Tech Taiwan Substack)