The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) quietly broke ground at a third chip fabrication facility in Arizona yesterday, shared a press release by the Commerce Department. TSMC received the permit to start building the site yesterday and had construction equipment start working at the site within hours of receiving government approval. The ground breaking of a new factory follows a $100 billion commitment by the firm to invest in the US announced by President Trump earlier this year and is part of TSMC's Arizona campus, which kicked off construction under a previous $65 billion investment by the firm in the US.
Apple, NVIDIA & AMD CEOs Praise TSMC's Construction Activities In Arizona
TSMC's Arizona campus is the largest operating presence of the firm in the country. The firm's $65 billion initial investment had outlined three fabs, with the third final fab intended to produce advanced products on technologies such as the 2-nanometer node. TSMC broke ground on the third fab at the Arizona site yesterday, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick visiting the site as soon as construction started.
In its press release, Lutnick's department noted that TSMC's $100 billion investment, which the firm announced with President Trump earlier this year, will create 40,000 construction jobs in the US and contribute more than $200 billion to the Arizona economy.
TSMC's ground breaking comes the same day that the firm received construction permits for the third fabrication plant. The speed appears to have been timed with media reports from Taiwan have claimed that TSMC is yet to submit details of its $100 billion additional investment to the US to the Taiwanese government for approval.
The primary goal of the Arizona fab is to provide US companies with their chip needs domestically instead of having to source the products from overseas, primarily Taiwan. Apple, NVIDIA and AMD's CEOs all shared their prepared remarks for the event. Apple is TSMC's largest customer and relies exclusively on the firm's chips for its smartphones, tablets and laptops. Even if it were to procure chips from the Arizona site, these would most likely have to be shipped abroad for final assembly.
In his remarks, Apple CEO Tim Cook asserted that his firm is TSMC Arizona's first and largest customer. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, whose firm is currently hopeful that the administration will change AI diffusion rules that restrict unrestricted sales of advanced chip productions to 17 countries and Taiwan, praised the "administration's support for U.S. manufacturing" which he believes makes AI infrastructure production in the US possible—and vital—for the next industrial revolution."
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su went a step further and shared that her firm plans to use TSMC's N2 manufacturing process for high performance computing (HPC) applications. These chips are used in modeling, research, AI and other applications. Su shared that her firm is "a lead HPC customer for TSMC's N2 process and for TSMC Arizona Fab 21" and praised TSMC's technologies for enabling AMD to deliver advanced products.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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