TSMC's Arizona chip fab production is sold out through late 2027

TSMC
(Image credit: TSMC)

TSMC's chief executive and chairman, C.C. Wei, said at a press conference in Taipei on Thursday that the company is expanding its production capacity in the U.S. due to customer demand and extraordinary booking through late 2027. According to Reuters, Wei stressed that the expansion in the U.S. would not affect the foundry's expansion plans in Taiwan. The press conference was held at Taiwan's presidential office.

TSMC's American customers — such as Apple, AMD, Broadcom, Nvidia, and Qualcomm — asked TSMC to boost U.S.-based capacity despite 25% - 30% higher quotes on chips produced in America, according to C.C. Wei. He did not reveal whether demand for U.S. capacity from some of America's largest fabless semiconductor companies picked up before or after President Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% – 100% tariffs on chips made in Taiwan. While it is generally unlikely that a U.S. administration would make chips 2X more expensive for customers in America overnight, political uncertainty certainly affected TSMC's decision making.

The company announced this week that it intends to build five additional Fab 21 modules, two advanced packaging facilities, and an R&D center in the U.S. for around $165 billion over an unspecified period of time. In addition, the company will continue to build its second JASM fab module in Japan in partnership with Sony and Toyota and its first ESMC fab aimed at customers in the automotive industry near Dresden, Germany.

CEO C.C. Wei emphasized that TSMC's $165 billion U.S. investment plan will not reduce its focus on Taiwan's semiconductor sector. The company remains committed to increasing domestic production, acknowledging that current capacity is still insufficient.

Indeed, Taiwan will remain TSMC's home turf, though, as the company preps to launch 11 new production lines on the island this year alone. This probably includes the company's Fab 20 near Baoshan in Hsinchu County, which will be the company's primary fab for production chips on N2 and A16 fabrication processes (2nm-class, 1.6nm-class) before its second N2-capable fab near Kaohsiung in Southern Taiwan Science Park kicks off in 2026. In addition, the company is expanding production on its advanced (7nm and below), mature, and specialty nodes in Taiwan as demand for all of its process technologies remains at record levels.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • bit_user
    I had a comment about the R&D center, but I've moved it to this thread:
    https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/tsmc-expands-investments-in-the-u-s-to-165-billion-with-new-fabs-and-r-d-center-a-closer-look.3875226/post-23449485
    Reply
  • Constellar
    I know I oftentimes express my dreams on this message board to an irritating degree, but wouldn't it be awesome if the current admin were to grant any person employed at TSMC; to grant them automatic US citizenship (they're gonna be taken over by a Chinese invasion by 2027 anyway, so the choice comes down to do you wanna be Chinese or would you rather be an American? With our wealthy standard of living and our lack of repression/political freedoms, the choice is an obvious one), then, as Americans, they crate and ship their Taiwan-located equipment to Arizona, where they quickly buy their homes and settle in? A flurry of building construction would solidify their factory base as being USA located and headquartered.
    That way, TSMC becomes a truly American company; just as American as Intel, TSMC gets to keep their highly productive workforce instead of having to worry about hiring the less industrious American native, and the entire workforce can now say that they are Americans and live in American homes in addition to bragging rights of being a citizen of the world's largest economy. I can't think of a single loser in this win-win-win-win arrangement...
    Reply
  • DaRAGingLunatic
    Constellar said:
    I know I oftentimes express my dreams on this message board to an irritating degree, but wouldn't it be awesome if the current admin were to grant any person employed at TSMC; to grant them automatic US citizenship (they're gonna be taken over by a Chinese invasion by 2027 anyway, so the choice comes down to do you wanna be Chinese or would you rather be an American? With our wealthy standard of living and our lack of repression/political freedoms, the choice is an obvious one), then, as Americans, they crate and ship their Taiwan-located equipment to Arizona, where they quickly buy their homes and settle in? A flurry of building construction would solidify their factory base as being USA located and headquartered.
    That way, TSMC becomes a truly American company; just as American as Intel, TSMC gets to keep their highly productive workforce instead of having to worry about hiring the less industrious American native, and the entire workforce can now say that they are Americans and live in American homes in addition to bragging rights of being a citizen of the world's largest economy. I can't think of a single loser in this win-win-win-win arrangement...

    All of Taiwan will be the loser if China successfully invades.

    The whole world will be the loser. You think prices are bad now? Supply constraints are bad now? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
    Reply