Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden.
In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona.
“For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent weeks.
Photo: Reuters
“That’s a big deal — never been done before, never in our history, and lots of people said it couldn’t happen,” Raimondo said of the previously undisclosed production start.
A spokesperson for TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia, which is to report earnings next week, declined to comment on Friday.
TSMC in April last year agreed to expand its planned investment by US$25 billion to US$65 billion and to add a third Arizona fab by 2030.
COURTING FIRMS
The US Congress created a US$52.7 billion semiconductor manufacturing and research subsidy program in 2022.
All five leading-edge semiconductor firms agreed to locate fabs in the US as part of the program.
Raimondo earlier said that the Department of Commerce had to convince TSMC to boost its US plans.
“It didn’t happen on its own... We had to convince TSMC that they would want to expand,” Raimondo said.
TSMC would produce the world’s most advanced 2-nanometer technology at its second Arizona fab, which is expected to begin production in 2028.
The company also agreed to use its most advanced chip manufacturing technology, called “A16,” in Arizona.
The department has also awarded TSMC up to US$5 billion in low-cost government loans.
Raimondo said she wants the US to make 20 percent of world’s leading-edge logic chips by 2030 — up from none before TSMC began production in Arizona.
In April last year, the department said TSMC expects to begin high-volume production in its first US fab by the first half of this year.
The department last month finalized an award of US$407 million to help fund Amkor Technology’s planned US$2 billion advanced semiconductor packaging facility in Arizona, which is set to be the largest of its kind in the US.
Amkor’s Arizona plant, when fully operational, would package and test millions of chips for autonomous vehicles, 5G/6G and data centers. Apple would be its first and largest customer with the chips produced at a nearby TSMC facility.
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