Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. the world’s top producer of AI chips, plans to invest an additional US$100 billion ($134.63 billion) in US plants that will boost its chip output on American soil and support President Donald Trump’s goal of increasing domestic manufacturing.
TSMC Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei joined Trump at the White House on Monday to unveil the company’s vision for expanding a US footprint that got its start in 2020 during the president’s first term in office. Trump said the move means “The most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America.”
“Without the semiconductors, there is no economy powering everything from AI to automobiles to advanced manufacturing,” Trump said from the Roosevelt Room.
The spending adds to US$65 billion in TSMC investments in the US that are already in the pipeline, Wei said, emphasizing that the moves would create thousands of new jobs.
TSMC is the world’s leader in production of advanced semiconductors used for artificial intelligence, and is the main chip manufacturing partner for Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. The investment would help bolster Trump’s pledge to make the US dominant in AI.
TSMC’s new investments will still need approval from Taiwan’s government. Taiwanese officials have said they will prudently review outbound investments in advanced chip tech. A presidential spokesman did not answer calls outside of regular office hours.
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Shares of TSMC’s American depositary receipts were down more than 3% earlier in the day but began to pare losses as Wei and Trump spoke.
TSMC’s announcement marked the latest major technology investment in the US since Trump’s return to power, with more than US$1 trillion in spending pledges from companies including Apple, OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. Even so, the scope of many of those commitments remains unclear, and some of the investments, including by Meta, may include previously planned spending.
Monday’s announcement comes as Trump weighs tariffs against a wide range of industries — including semiconductors, lumber, autos and pharmaceuticals — to address what he sees as global trade imbalances that hurt the US. Levies on chips would hit hard in Taiwan, where a vast majority of the world’s most advanced wafers, especially those used in artificial intelligence, are made.
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Tariff threats
Trump has repeatedly accused Taiwan of “stealing” the US semiconductor industry and threatened tariffs on foreign-produced chips, as top US officials have consistently affirmed their commitment to boosting domestic manufacturing. That’s particularly true for technologies at the heart of the US-China competition.
“By doing it here, he has no tariffs,” Trump said, when asked about the role his tariff threats have played in influencing investment decisions.
The president has expressed a preference for using tariffs to boost US chipmaking instead of government subsidies, the approach favored under former President Joe Biden, who pushed for passage of the Chips and Science Act to revive the domestic industry. That legislation, signed in 2022, led to TSMC winning US$6.6 billion in grants to support three plants in Phoenix.
Future implementation of Chips Act programs, however, remains clouded by the prospect of significant staffing reductions as Trump slashes the federal workforce. The US government office responsible for the marquee US$52 billion chip subsidy program will lose about two-fifths of its staff, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump administration officials have also approached TSMC about possibly taking a controlling stake in Intel Corp.’s factories, Bloomberg News reported previously. Those talks remain in the early stages but the move is aimed at addressing concerns about Intel’s deteriorating financial state, which has forced it to slash jobs and curb global expansion plans.
During Trump’s first term, his administration lured TSMC to the US partly out of national security concerns. When TSMC first announced its investments in an advanced plant in the US in 2020, Trump officials at the time said chips made by the Taiwanese chipmaker in Arizona would power everything from artificial intelligence to F-35 fighter jets.
The company’s first facility in Arizona is up and running, and its early production yields have surpassed those at similar factories back home.
