The world’s biggest chip-maker, Taiwan’s TSMC, announced from the White House last night that it would add $100bn to the $65bn already committed to semiconductor manufacturing in the US, calling it “the largest single foreign direct investment in US history”.
It plans to build three new fabrication plants (known as “fabs”), two advanced packaging facilities, and what it called “a major R&D team centre” at its site in Phoenix, Arizona.
The company said it would create 40,000 construction jobs over the next four years.
The move will boost advanced semiconductor production capacity in the US for customers like Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, and Qualcomm, TSMC said.
It will also “complete the domestic AI supply chain with TSMC’s first US advanced packaging investments”, it added.
“President Trump has made it a fundamental objective to bring semiconductor chip manufacturing home to America,” said US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
“You’re seeing the power of Donald Trump’s presidency because TSMC, the greatest manufacturer of chips in the world, is coming to America with a $100bn investment.”
On Friday, another semiconductor giant, Intel, said it was delaying the opening of its two-fab, $100bn production campus in Ohio until 2030.
How we got here
TSMC first announced a $12bn investment to build an advanced semiconductor fab in Arizona in May 2020. This fab entered volume production late last year, employing around 3,000 people on a 1,100-acre site north of Phoenix.
It upped the investment to $40bn in December 2022, committing to build a second fab, and then again to $65bn in April 2024 with a commitment to build a third fab on the federal government’s offer of $6.6bn in grants under the Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act, $5bn in loans, and an investment tax credit of up to 25% of capital expenditure.
Elsewhere in the US, TSMC operates a fab in Camas, Washington State, and design service centres in Austin, Texas, and San Jose, California.
‘Reshaping our daily lives’
The company said last night’s 154% increase in its investment would create “hundreds of billions of dollars in semiconductor value for AI and other cutting-edge applications”.
“Back in 2020, thanks to President Trump’s vision and support, we embarked on our journey of establishing advanced chip manufacturing in the United States. This vision is now a reality,” said the company’s chair and chief executive, Dr. C.C. Wei.
“AI is reshaping our daily lives and semiconductor technology is the foundation for new capabilities and applications. With the success of our first fab in Arizona, along with needed government support and strong customer partnerships, we intend to expand our U.S. semiconductor manufacturing investment by an additional $100bn, bringing our total planned investment to $165bn.”
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