Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest chip manufacturer, intends to spend $100 billion in the United States over the next four years to expand its production capacity and bring its most advanced semiconductor processes to its operations in Arizona.
C.C. Wei, TSMC’s chief executive, is expected to unveil the investment and production plans on Monday during an appearance with President Trump at the White House, said two people familiar with the plan who asked for anonymity because it hasn’t been announced.
The investment comes after years of work to rev up domestic manufacturing of semiconductors. The push to rebuild that industry began during the previous Trump administration and continued with the Biden administration’s passage of the CHIPS Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at making the United States less reliant on Asia for the tiny electronics that power everything from cars to iPads.
The investment was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
Over the past decade, TSMC has cornered the market on chip manufacturing. It concentrated its production in Taiwan, raising concerns in Washington that the United States could lose access to advanced chips because Beijing wants to reclaim the island as part of China.
Under the CHIPS Act, TSMC committed to invest $65 billion to build three factories in Arizona. The production process it committed to bringing to the United States is a legacy technology that makes less sophisticated chips than the ones it produces in Taiwan. It received $6.6 billion in federal funding to support the project.
Since taking office in January, Mr. Trump has pressured TSMC to bring its more advanced production processes to the United States. He has threatened tariffs of 100 percent on Taiwanese chips and criticized the CHIPS Act for failing to get companies like TSMC to make more chips domestically.
TSMC and Taiwanese officials have been scrambling to respond to Mr. Trump’s threats. In January, Mr. Wei met with Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, about investments that TSMC could make. They explored the possibility of TSMC investing in the U.S. chipmaker, Intel, in a deal that would see it take over the Silicon Valley icon’s manufacturing operations. Taiwanese officials also traveled to Washington and floated deals to invest in the United States.
But Mr. Trump kept up his pressure on the company and Taiwan’s government. During a White House news conference in February, Mr. Trump said, “Taiwan took our chip business away. We had Intel. We had these great companies that did so well. It was taken from us and we want that business back. We want it back in the United States and if they don’t bring it back we’re not going to be very happy.”
With its appearance on Monday, TSMC will become the latest in a string of companies to visit the White House and make investment commitments. In January, OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank promised to spend $500 billion on data centers over the next four years. Last month, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, met with Mr. Trump before the company committed to spending $500 billion over four years, with some of that support going to a new factory in Houston to make artificial intelligence servers.
“Back in 2020, thanks to President Trump’s vision and support, we embarked on our journey of establishing advanced chip manufacturing in the United States,” a TSMC spokesman said in a statement on Monday. “We’re pleased to have an opportunity to meet with the president and look forward to discussing our shared vision for innovation and growth in the semiconductor industry.”
Content Source: www.nytimes.com