Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip maker, plans to build a third chip factory in Arizona after receiving $6.6 billion in grants and $5 billion in loans through US government subsidies. This is part of a massive effort led by the Biden administration to make America's semiconductor manufacturing industry great again.
"Today, we continue building on that historic progress, with the Department of Commerce announcing a preliminary agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to support the construction of leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing facilities right here in the United States," the White House wrote in a press release.
The White House said, "Thanks to this investment, TSMC will also build a third chip factory in Phoenix, increasing its total investment in Arizona to $65 billion and creating over 25,000 direct construction and manufacturing jobs, along with thousands of indirect jobs."
"It's a national security problem that we don't manufacture any of the world's most sophisticated chips in the United States," US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters.
TSMC's third chip plant will produce next-generation 2-nanometer chips, forecasted to be in production by the decade's end. According to Bloomberg, the other two chip plants are expected to begin production in 2025 and 2028.
Raimondo pointed out that 2nm chips will be crucial for artificial intelligence chips that power the defense industry.
"For the first time ever, we will be making at scale the most advanced semiconductor chips on the planet here in the United States of America, by the way, with American workers," the official said.
TSMC's expansion in the United States will mitigate China's influence on chip supply chains across Asia, especially Taiwan-based ones.
Here are some of the latest investments the Biden administration has dished out to tech firms for re-shoring efforts.
Raimondo recently said the Chips Act allows the US to capture about 20% of the world's most advanced chip production by 2030. As a reminder, the US once had 37% of the world's chip production in 1990 and has since plummeted to about 12% in recent years due to the West's globalist leaders who off-shored America's manufacturing capacity. It's time to bring the production back as the world fractures into a dangerous multi-polar state.
