Arizona’s State Governor Doug Ducey has given an update on the TSMC Arizona plant, stating that construction of the main chip facility is now complete. The plant is expected to fabricate some of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips.
In a likely bid to appease China, TSMC issued a statement stressing that Ducey had not visited the company during his trip to Taiwan …
TSMC Arizona plant
The Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) first announced plans to build a $12B chip-fabrication plant in Arizona in 2020. It wasn’t long before the company started seeking subsidies.
No timings were given at the time, but the company subsequently said that production would begin in 2024. It has been widely speculated that Apple A-series and M-series chips would be made there. Reports suggested more US plants may follow.
A potential answer to the request for subsidies was found in the $52B CHIPS Act. The money was agreed in order to address the global chip shortage that arose during the pandemic, and ensure that the US isn’t left behind by China.
Apple lobbied for the cash, which TSMC said was “vital” to its Arizona chipmaking plant. The act finally passed into law earlier this month.
TSMC said that the plant would be built with or without subsidies, but that the scale and pace of the work would be determined by financial support.
Main chip facility complete
South China Morning Post reports on comments made by Arizona State Governor Doug Ducey during a visit to Taiwan.
Taiwanese chip maker TSMC is making “excellent progress” building its new plant in Arizona, the governor of the US state said on Wednesday […]
Speaking at an investment conference during a visit to Taipei, Arizona governor Doug Ducey recalled meeting the TSMC leadership in 2017 and then in 2020 announcing the investment.
“Just over two years later TSMC has completed construction for its main facility and continues to make excellent progress,” he said, describing visiting the construction site as “even more impressive in person.
“Along with TSMC’s historic investment, roughly two dozen Taiwanese-based suppliers are finding Arizona is right for investment,” Ducey added.
This leaves the company around two years to complete construction of the remaining facilities at the TSMC Arizona plant, carry out test production, and take care of all the steps leading up to volume production
TSMC issued only a low-key response, in which it said that Ducey didn’t visit the company.
TSMC said in a statement that the governor and his team did not visit the company, but did talk with them.
“Thanks to the continuous support of the Arizona state government, representatives of TSMC, together with many supply chain partners, had a great discussion with the governor and his team today on the current investment projects in Arizona,” it said, without elaborating.
An earlier visit to TSMC in Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi sparked extremely strong reactions from China, including live-fire military exercises simulating a blockade of the island – something that would be part of an invasion plan. That being the case, it is likely that TSMC wanted to do everything it could to downplay Ducey’s visit – especially since the governor also described the state’s role in training Taiwan’s F-16 fighter pilots.
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