TSMC and MediaTek to hire more than 10,000 people in 2022 amid global chip shortage

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and MediaTek Inc. plan to hire more than 10,000 engineers this year to support aggressive business expansion plans and maintain technological leadership as global economies push for local industry development.

TSMC plans to hire about 8,000 engineers in 2022, about the same level as last year, according to people familiar with the matter. As the world's largest chip foundry, TSMC is expanding massively, building and expanding factories in China, the United States, Japan and other places.

TSMC announced plans to invest up to $44 billion this year to expand production capacity to ease the global chip shortage and meet customers' growing demand for artificial intelligence and 5G application chips. TSMC said it has not finalized its recruitment plan for this year, but said last year's recruitment target was about 8,000 people. TSMC currently has more than 60,000 employees worldwide.

Meanwhile, MediaTek, the world's largest mobile chip developer, said it will hire more than 2,000 employees this year. The company recently surpassed U.S. rival Qualcomm in the high-end 5G market. MediaTek hired more than 2,000 engineers last year, bringing its total workforce to about 19,300.

MediaTek's current recruitment positions are mainly located in Taiwan. However, the company said it plans to increase recruitment in India. MediaTek has a research and development team of more than 1,000 people in India and has found "excellent chip talents." MediaTek also said that the company's research and development expenditure in 2021 will be about NT$100 billion (US$3.6 billion), and this year's budget will increase by 10% to 20%. In 2020, MediaTek's research and development budget was NT$77.3 billion.

In addition, ASML, Europe's largest chip equipment company, plans to recruit about 1,000 people in Taiwan this year to build a team of about 3,800 employees there. ASML recruited 1,400 people last year. In addition, leading chip material manufacturers Merck and Entegris are also building new production facilities in the region and plan to recruit more employees this year.