TSMC reportedly weighs 3D DRAM production at Nvidia’s request

Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell Ultra board combines a Grace CPU, two GPUs and HBM3E memory. It depicts existing hardware, not the reported 3D DRAM proposal. Image: Nvidia. Source: Nvidia.

A memory partner could become a competitor

DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, temporarily stores data. The reported 3D DRAM architecture arranges memory cells in vertical layers to increase capacity rather than placing them in a single horizontal layer. Manufacturing it would bring TSMC into competition with memory producers Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron, the November 6 account says.

TSMC already participates in the memory supply chain. Korean memory manufacturer SK hynix said in an April 2024 collaboration announcement that it planned to adopt TSMC’s advanced logic process for the base die beneath its HBM4 memory stack. SK hynix had used its own technology for base dies through HBM3E. The planned switch was intended to pack more functionality into limited space and support customized memory for customers’ performance and power-efficiency requirements.

The partners also agreed to improve integration of SK hynix memory with TSMC’s CoWoS packaging, which connects logic chips and high-bandwidth memory in a module. Their announcement described an existing partnership integrating logic and HBM for AI systems.

HBM stacks DRAM dies; the reported 3D DRAM proposal concerns the arrangement of memory cells. Base-die manufacturing and packaging give TSMC a role in existing AI memory systems, but do not establish that it can manufacture the proposed memory architecture at commercial scale. The reporting also does not establish whether that memory would replace, complement or be incorporated into Nvidia’s existing HBM-based designs.

The reported project leader brings experience from both sides of that relationship. Hsu Kuo-chin, the TSMC vice president overseeing advanced packaging whom the November 6 account identifies as leading the initiative, previously served as Micron’s chairman for Taiwan. TSMC’s 2024 annual report filed with the SEC identifies him as K.C. Hsu and says he joined TSMC and became a vice president in November 2021.

Micron’s company-reported Tongluo acquisition milestones and projected shipments. Fiscal 2028 was its forward-looking target, not a TSMC production forecast. Source: Micron. Source: Micron.

A factory and an output schedule remain undecided

TSMC is reportedly considering building new factories or acquiring an existing plant and converting it for memory production. The reports disclose no selected facility, investment amount, production date or capacity target. They provide no basis for comparing the proposed memory’s manufacturing cost with existing products.

Micron supplies both a precedent for conversion and a competing expansion plan. The memory and storage manufacturer said in a March 15, 2026 announcement that it had completed its acquisition of Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation’s P5 site in Tongluo, Taiwan. The facility would extend Micron’s existing Taiwan operations and support additional leading-edge DRAM supply, including HBM, the company said.

The acquired site had approximately 300,000 square feet of existing cleanroom space for 300mm wafer manufacturing. Micron planned to begin retrofitting it in March and expected meaningful shipments from the existing fab beginning in its fiscal 2028. It also planned to start construction of a second facility with approximately 270,000 square feet of cleanroom space by the end of fiscal 2026. These were Micron’s forward-looking plans, rather than evidence that the extra supply had arrived.

Micron’s schedule illustrates the work between acquiring a facility and shipping memory; it is not a forecast for TSMC’s unspecified technology and factory. For TSMC, the next decisive evidence is a confirmed investment tied to a facility, a production schedule and usable output. Those commitments would allow customers to assess whether the proposal could add supply within a useful timeframe—and alongside the expansions already planned by established memory makers.