March 3 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Monday met with the chief of one of the world’s biggest semiconductor chip producers amid talk of a new hundred billion-dollar U.S. investment.
Trump and CEO C.C. Wei announced that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, will invest $100 billion over the next four years in new U.S.-based chip manufacturing plants, according to sources.
“Back in 2020, thanks to President Trump’s vision and support, we embarked on our journey of establishing advanced chip manufacturing in the United States,” TSMC officials told CNN earlier Monday in a statement.
On Monday, Wei pledged TSMC will build two more Arizona plants by 2030.
TSMC is the one of the largest and most well-known semiconductor chip manufacturers in Taiwan and around the globe used in scores of tech products from cars to iPhones.
“We’re pleased to have an opportunity to meet with the President and look forward to discussing our shared vision for innovation and growth in the semiconductor industry, as well as exploring ways to bolster the technology sector along with our customers,” they added.
It was granted more than $6 billion in funding via former President Joe Biden’s 2022 Chips and Science Act that boosted plans for its first American-based plant which began producing chips last months for Apple products.
Trump, however, was critical of the CHIPS Act during the 2024 campaign, claiming that tariffs were a better vehicle to bring foreign manufacturing to the United States.
But in recent years TSMC has expanded its presence to include a second Arizona factory in a $40 billion investment, although the second plant has seen delays.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Monday that the U.S. government’s Chips Program Office overseeing some $52 billion will lose roughly two-fifths of its staff amid Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s sweeping gut of the federal workforce.
It arrived on the heel of other tech investments like a joint venture by Oracle, SoftBank and OpenAI, and a $500 billion commitment by Apple which will see a “thousands” of new AI-related jobs and a Houston area-based “advanced manufacturing facility.”
