At a news announcement at the White House today, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei stood next to President Donald Trump as he announced that TSMC will invest $100 billion in the United States. The new operations will primarily be in Arizona.
“The most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America," Trump said. This new pledge is on top of the already existing $65 billion investment that the company has made in its existing fabs that are already putting out 4nm chips.
Trump said that the investment will go towards building three fabs, two packaging facilities, and a research and development center. Trump suggested there will be more than 20,000 jobs in and around the Arizona facilities, while TSMC's press release says it will "support 40,000 construction jobs over the next four years and create tens of thousands of high-paying, high-tech jobs in advanced chip manufacturing and R&D."
No mention was made of what nodes TSMC will be making chips on, nor how much capacity it will have. Apple, AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm were mentioned as potential customers.
Trump highlighted the matter of economic and national security for the United States to have advanced chips manufactured within its borders.
Although the CHIPS and Science Act helped jumpstart TSMC’s move to the U.S. during the Biden administration, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick posited that it’s Trump's tariffs that made TSMC move to the U.S.
This move will allow TSMC to diversify its production away from Taiwan, especially as the island country is often beset by natural disasters like earthquakes and typhoons. More than that, there are also geopolitical tensions with China. Fabs in the U.S. will also bring TSMC closer to its customers, and the production capacity that these news factories will deliver may already be contracted out to the companies Wei mentioned.
Not everyone will react positively to this news. Intel, which is already in deep financial trouble in the latter half of 2024, has a major competitor making chips in America with a promise of further investment. And while we don’t know yet if TSMC will manufacture its leading-edge chips, the Taiwanese government has already cleared the company to produce its 2nm chips abroad, which will likely be in Arizona.
