TSMC Confirmed Its Plans To Build Advanced Chip Foundry In Arizona

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is Taiwan’s one of the largest company, headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It is also the world’s largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry. Today, the company publically announced its plans to build an advanced chip foundry in Arizona. This factory will be built with support from the state and the United States federal government.

Earlier this week, Wall Street Journal reported that White House officials were in talks to build foundries with TSMC and Intel in the U.S. President Trump, has long pledged to bring manufacturing back from overseas with slumping economic due to COVID-19, the government is pushing to end the U.S. production and supply chain dependency on China. This project has become a major part of its effort to reduce reliance on chip factories in Asia.

TSMC supplies chips to the world’s largest semiconductor companies include Apple and Qualcomm. On Friday, according to TSMC, the construction will start in 2021 and the factory will start production of chips in 2024. The plant will make 5-nanometer transistor chips for TSMC, which are currently, being tested with customers in Taiwan.

TSMC says the facility will create over 1,600 high-tech professional jobs and will produce 20,000 wafers a month. Moreover, the company is expecting to spend nearly $12 billion between 2021 and 2029 on the project. In October, TSMC chairman Mark Liu told the New York Times that the project requires some major subsidies as it is expensive to operate in the U.S. than in Taiwan.

Even though, financial incentives the company might receive from the government it is yet not clear. However, Wall Street has reported that the State and Commerce departments are involved in the plans. Currently, TSMC also operates a foundry in Camas, Washington. It has also designed centers in San Jose, California, and Austin, Texas.