TSMC Arizona, a subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, has secured a potential $6.6 billion in direct funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce for the construction of new semiconductor fabrication plants, also known as fabs.
The Commerce Department said Friday the investment, awarded under the CHIPS Incentives Program’s Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication Facilities, will support TSMC Arizona’s plans of constructing three greenfield fabs in Phoenix, Arizona. The award, first announced after the signing of the preliminary memorandum of terms on April 8, will be part of a $65 billion investment for the three fabs.
Investment to Boost Semiconductor Supply Chain
The planned new fabs are intended to bolster the domestic supply chain for semiconductors, which aims to strengthen the U.S. economy and national security. The CHIPS investment aims to build a more reliable supply of chips that can be utilized for developing emerging technology and fast-growing industries.
The three new manufacturing facilities can potentially produce tens of millions of logic chips, including TSMC’s A16 technology, that will be utilized for AI applications, high-performance computing, Internet of Things, consumer electronics like 5G/6G smartphones and innovative industries such as autonomous vehicles.
TSMC Arizona Funding to Create New Jobs
In his statement on the final CHIPS award for TSMC, U.S. President Joe Biden said that the CHIPS and Science Act has so far resulted in investments in semiconductors amounting to nearly $450 billion. These awards have created over 125,000 construction and manufacturing jobs.
The latest and final TSMC investment is expected to generate an additional 6,000 direct manufacturing jobs and more than 20,000 unique construction jobs.
“This is the largest foreign direct investment in a greenfield project in the history of the United States,” said President Biden. “The first of TSMC’s three facilities is on track to fully open early next year, which means that for the first time in decades an America manufacturing plant will be producing the leading-edge chips used in our most advanced technologies – from our smartphones, to autonomous vehicles, to the data centers powering artificial intelligence.”
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, stated, “The leading-edge chips that will be manufactured in Arizona are foundational to the United States’ technological and economic leadership in the 21st century.”
TSMC Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei, added, “Entering this phase of the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act marks a pivotal step in strengthening the semiconductor ecosystem in the United States.”
