TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and MediaTek are looking to hire more than 10,000 engineers in total this year.

Sources told Nikkei that TSMC intends to hire around 8,000 engineers in 2022, around the same number they took on last year. TSMC is in the middle of its biggest expansion ever, with facilities being scaled up and constructed in Taiwan, the U.S., Japan, and China, according to the report.

The world’s largest contract chipmaker said it is still finalizing its hiring plans for the year but that it hired around 8,000 workers last year. TSMC has more than 60,000 employees worldwide.

Meanwhile, fabless chipmaker MediaTek said it plans to hire 2,000 design engineers this year. The company hired more than 2,000 engineers in 2021, bringing its total number of employees to around 19,300, according to Nikkei.

MediaTek intends to do most of its hiring in Taiwan, though it is also looking to add a substantial number of new staff members to its research and development team in India, which already has 1,000 employees.

The hiring pushes by TSMC and MediaTek come amid the continued global chip crunch, which has brought attention to the strategic importance of Taiwan and its semiconductor industry. To help maintain its lead in the chip sector, Taiwan recently opened new semiconductor graduate schools at four top universities, the report said.

Additionally, the Taiwanese government intends to invest NT$300 million (US$10.88 million) over the next 10 years to help bolster R&D talent within the domestic chip sector.