Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) opened talks with Singapore’s Economic Development Board seeking incentives to set up chip production facilities, as the company looks to expand output to offset global shortages, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

The newspaper reported preliminary discussions focused on a potential investment of billions of dollars in a plant with 7nm and 28nm technology.

WSJ cited a source as explaining the Singapore government was seeking to shore up supplies of key components.

TSMC’s interest in Singapore follows moves to set up a new production facility in its domestic market, expand into Europe and Japan, and increase its presence in the US with a $12 billion factory.

The chipmaker earmarked capex of $40 billion to $44 billion in 2022, up from $30.4 billion in 2021.

With a prolonged chip shortage, TSMC aims to boost output and diversify manufacturing geographically to avoid bottlenecks and reduce its dependency on China as a production base.