Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is more than tripling its US investment to total US$40 billion as it plans to make 3-nanometer chips in 2026 at a second Arizona fab, adding to the chipmaker’s original plan of building a US$12 billion fab to make 5-nanometer chips in 2024.
The investment would mark the largest foreign direct investment in Arizona’s history and one of the largest foreign direct investments in the history of the US, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement yesterday.
In addition to the more than 10,000 construction workers at the site, TSMC’s two fabs are expected to create an additional 10,000 high-paying high-tech jobs, including 4,500 direct TSMC jobs, it said.
Photo: CNA
When complete, the two fabs would produce more than 600,000 wafers per year, with estimated end-product value of more than US$40 billion, the statement said.
“When complete, TSMC Arizona will be the greenest semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States producing the most advanced semiconductor process technology in the country, enabling next-generation high-performance and low-power computing products for years to come,” TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) said in the statement.
US President Joe Biden was yesterday to visit the Arizona plant. The chipmaker’s investment is a big win for Biden after supply-chain issues disrupted the US economy early in his presidency.
Joining Biden on his visit to promote efforts to boost US technology manufacturing were expected to be Apple Inc chief executive Tim Cook, TSMC founder Morris Chang (張忠謀), Micron Technology chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra and Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), among others, the White House said.
They were to attend a “tool-in” ceremony, which is the symbolic moving of the first equipment onto the shop floor of the new US$12 billion facility.
The plant is scheduled to be operational in 2024.
“Bringing TSMC’s investment to the United States is a masterstroke and a game-changing development for the industry,” Huang said in remarks prepared for yesterday’s event.
US semiconductor production now accounts for just 12 percent of the global total, down from 37 percent two decades ago, a White House report on supply-chain problems last year said.
Taiwan’s dominant position as a maker of chips used in technology from mobile phones and vehicles to fighter jets has sparked concerns of over-reliance on the nation, especially as China ramps up its military pressure.
“The occasion for the president’s travel is to mark a significant milestone that TSMC is reaching in bringing the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing back to the US,” US National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said.
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would