--- title: "CoWoS: what it means · The AI Compute Race · DRYBURGH" source: https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/cowos description: "CoWoS: Chip on wafer on substrate, TSMC's process for bonding logic dies and memory into one package." --- # CoWoS What does “CoWoS” mean? CoWoSChip on wafer on substrate, TSMC’s process for bonding logic dies and memory into one package. Its capacity, counted in wafers a month, is read in row 17 of the Scorecard. *Chapter 5.* From *The AI Compute Race*. [Read the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#buy) ## Where the book uses it - [Chapter 5 — The Island in Every Machine](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes/chapter-5)Why every accelerator runs through Taiwan: the foundry, the packaging and the memory that are booked years ahead, and what that does to anyone arriving late with cash. ## Where the record uses it - Scorecard indicator [CoWoS](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard#row-17) - Dated test [Chapter 5, NVIDIA’s place in the queue, read apart, due 31 December 2027](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests#2027-14) ## Also discussed in - Dated test [Chapter 5, the concentration half](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests#2028-8) ## Sources that use it - GlobalFoundries, “GlobalFoundries reaches agreement to establish U.S.-based supply of silicon interposers for advanced AI packaging,” press release, Malta, New York, 8 October 2026 (a manufacturing agreement with TSMC “to establish a U.S.-based supply of silicon interposers for TSMC’s CoWoS® advanced packaging ecosystem”; “Volume production is expected to begin ramping at GF’s Malta site during the first half of 2028”; an initial term of five years; the release calls it a “Multi-year $2 billion agreement” and does not say what the sum measures, gives no volume in wafers and names no accelerator; nothing on bonding, which stays in Taiwan; no TSMC statement is held; read whole as served, fetched 11 October 2026). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/company#gf-interposers-oct26) - TSMC, first-quarter 2023 earnings call transcript, 20 April 2023 (Laura Chen of Citigroup asked about capacity for advanced packaging; Wendell Huang, chief financial officer: “for this year, is -- the revenue will be lower than that of last year because of customer demand”; C. C. Wei, chief executive, after her follow-up: “let me say that, actually, just recently in these 2 days, I received a customer’s phone call requesting a big increase on the back-end capacity, especially in the CoWoS. We are still evaluating that”; earlier on the call, Wei: “we have recently observed incremental upside in AI-related demand, which helps the ongoing inventory digestion”; an edited transcript by Refinitiv StreetEvents, hosted by TSMC on its investor site and read in the Internet Archive’s copy of that file). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/company#tsmc-1q23-transcript) - TSMC, first-quarter 2024 earnings call transcript, 18 April 2024 (the 3 April Hualien earthquake: more than 70 percent of tools recovered within ten hours, all tools by the end of the third day, no damage to EUV equipment, some wafers scrapped, about 50 basis points off second-quarter gross margin; priority is customers’ success regardless of which customer; OSATs as a complement to TSMC’s own advanced-packaging expansion; C. C. Wei in prepared remarks: “We forecast the revenue contribution from server AI processors to more than double this year and account for low-teens percent of our total revenue in 2024”; C. C. Wei on CoWoS capacity, answering an analyst: “the demand is very, very strong, and we have done our best where we put all the effort to increase the capacity. It’s probably more than double this year as compared with last year. However, it’s still not enough to meet the customers’ demand, and we leverage our OSAT partners to complement of TSMC’s capacity to fulfill our customers’ need.”; C. C. Wei on how CoWoS capacity is allocated: “my first priority is to make our customer to be successful, no matter which one. And of course, the long-term partners will have a better cooperation with TSMC in terms of technology and process complexity, so much easier to be ramped up”). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/company#tsmc-1q24-transcript) - TSMC, fourth-quarter 2024 earnings conference call, 16 January 2025, the edited transcript TSMC posts (C.C. Wei, asked whether HBM or CoWoS was the biggest constraint: “I don’t have other suppliers, but I know that we have a very tight capacity to support the AI demand. I don’t want to say I’m the bottleneck”) [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/company#tsmc-4q24-transcript) - TSMC, second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call, 18 July 2024, the edited transcript TSMC posts (C.C. Wei, asked whether TSMC would work with more partners to increase its CoWoS supply: “As for the working with OSAT partners, yes, we are doing it”; of CoWoS capacity, “It’s not enough and in great shortage”; “The supply continue to be very tight, all the way to probably 2025, and I hope it can be eased in 2026”) [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/company#tsmc-2q24-transcript) And 8 more: [search the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources). ## Related terms - [Wafer](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/wafer) - [TSMC](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/tsmc) - [Advanced packaging](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/advanced-packaging) - [AI factory](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/ai-factory) - [Booked, allocated, rationed](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/booked-allocated-rationed) - [CHIPS Act](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/chips-act) - [Convertible](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/convertible) - [Custom silicon](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/custom-silicon) - [Cut-out](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/cut-out) - [DRAM](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/dram) - [EUV](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/euv) - [Fab](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/fab) From the glossary of The AI Compute Race. - [Campuses](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger) - [Tests](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests) - [Scorecard](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard) - [Data](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/data/releases) - [Chapter by chapter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/companion) - [The record at a glance](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/observatory) - [The machine](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/machine) - [One campus, four futures](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/hyperion) - [Glossary](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary) - [People](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/people) - [Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources) - [Notes](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes) - [Where the book was wrong](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/corrections) - [Where its sources were wrong](https://dryburgh.com/corrections?book=vol1) - [The Paper](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/paper) - [Consent](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/consent) - [Who builds and pays](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/parties) *The AI Compute Race: Five Races, One Machine* is a book by Lee S. Dryburgh, the first volume of THE COMPUTE ECONOMY, published by Dryburgh, an imprint of Contestra OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia; its record closes on 8 November 2026. [About the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1)[Tell me when it is out](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#notify)