The board of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has approved capital appropriations of approximately US$4.49 billion for new fabs construction, advanced-node and specialty technology upgrades and related capacity expansions.

The newly-approved capex will also be used for conversion of certain logic and mature technology capacity to specialty technology capacity, as well as R&D capital investments and sustaining capital expenditures for fourth-quarter 2018.

TSMC's board also approved the appointment of Philip Wong as VP of TSMC and head of corporate research. Wong has 16 years of semiconductor industry experience at IBM.