Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) is planning to build several more chipmaking factories in Arizona beyond the one currently planned, Reuters reports, citing “three people familiar with the matter.”
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, announced in May 2020 it would build a $12 billion factory in Arizona, an apparent win by the Trump administration in its push to wrestle global tech supply chains back from China.
TSMC is setting up a 12-inch wafer fabrication plant in Phoenix, and the facility is expected to start volume production in 2024… Three sources familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, told Reuters that up to five additional fabs for Arizona are being planned… It is not clear how much additional production capacity and investment the additional fabs might represent, and which chip manufacturing technology they would use.
MacDailyNews Take: TSMC CEO C.C. Wei during the company’s Q121 Earnings Call on April 15, 2021:
We are executing our plan in Arizona according to the schedule. And construction will start this year. Phase I production, as you said, you are starting 2024 with a 20,000-wafer per month five-nanometer technology. But in fact, we have acquired a large piece of land in Arizona to provide flexibility.
So the further expansion is possible, but we will ramp up to Phase I first then based on the operation efficiency and cost economics and also the customers’ demand to decide what the next steps we are going to do. Our customer welcome us to build capacity in the U.S. And our fab in Arizona will be available to support all our customers from around the world.
Who is gonna work there? Taiwanese employees?
Well, the chips are so small now, that they are assembled by a highly trained team of “Mice” . . . the challenge is building the on-site dairy farm in the desert, to provide the cheese.
Much more likely that it is a few more lines within the currently planned fab to expand its capability rather than several more complete fabs.
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