Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has begun construction on a third chip plant in Arizona, ramping up its US expansion as the Trump administration threatens further tariffs to spur American manufacturing.
The world's most advanced chipmaker announced the third phase of its US expansion the same day Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick toured TSMC's site, which the company called the single largest foreign investment in US history.
TSMC, the main chipmaker to Apple and Nvidia, is the centrepiece of the US government's effort to entice manufacturing back home. Lutnick has signalled he could withhold promised Chips Act grants as he pushes companies in line for federal semiconductor subsidies to substantially expand their US projects, Bloomberg News has reported.
In March, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei joined Trump at the White House to unveil plans to invest an additional US$100 billion in US plants that will boost its output on American soil. The spending adds to US$65 billion in planned TSMC investments in the US and would eventually bring its American presence to a half-dozen plants for advanced wafer fabrication and a couple more for advanced packaging.
