C.C. Wei, CEO of TSMC, on Thursday confirmed for the first time that the $12 billion factory that TSMC is building in Arizona will start mass production in the first quarter of 2024, and said the first batch of engineers hired in the U.S. to staff the facility arrived in Taiwan during late April for training.
Cheng Ting-Fang and Lauly Li report for Nikkei:
“We will continue to compress our schedule [for the project] as much as we can,” Liu said.
Washington [D.C] pointed out in a recent supply chain review that the centralization of advanced chip production in Taiwan — a key Asian chip economy that China views as part of its territory — is a potential vulnerability for the semiconductor supply chain.
“Let me tell you … everybody wants to have a peaceful Taiwan Strait. And not only because it is to every country’s benefit, but also because of the semiconductor supply chain in Taiwan. No one wants to disrupt it,” Liu said in an apparent attempt to allay investor concerns over geopolitical risks.
MacDailyNews Note: Wei also confirmed that TSMC is eyeing the company’s first chip production site in Japan and that the company is committed to continue building up its overseas manufacturing presence. Wei said the world’s top chipmaker is conducting “due diligence” to determine the feasibility of building and operating a chip facility in Japan.