TSMC made clear this week that it has big plans for Fab 21, its Arizona chip manufacturing campus. In an earnings call, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei dismissed reports that the company was considering a joint venture with Intel and laid out the chipmaker’s plans for its burgeoning US presence. Referring to TSMC’s recent announcement regarding a planned $100 billion investment in the US, Wei noted that plans for Arizona have increased from the initial three fabrication plants to six, and that 30% of its sub-2nm chip production will eventually happen in the US. The bulk of N2 production will take place in Taiwan.

“This expansion includes plans for three additional wafer manufacturing fabs, two advanced packaging fabs, and a major R&D center,” Wei said on the earnings call. “Combined with our previously announced plan to build three advanced semiconductor manufacturing fabs in Arizona, this brings our total investment in the US to $165 billion to support the strong multi-year demand from our customers.”

Including the packaging facilities is an important move for TSMC. Without advanced packaging capabilities on US soil, TSMC faced the prospect of building certain chips (such as Nvidia’s Blackwell) in the US and then shipping them to Taiwan for packaging. Given the new US stance on tariffs, keeping everything here is likely to reduce both complexity and cost.

Wei said that the additional facilities will “enable TSMC to scale up to a gigafab cluster, to support the needs of our leading-edge customers in smartphone, AI, and HPC applications."

The first fab at the Arizona campus makes 4nm products. The second fab is for making 3nm chips. The third and fourth fabs, which have not yet been built, will handle N2 and A16 chips, bringing TSMC’s 2nm and sub-2nm processes to the US for the first time. That’s a crucial step for TSMC and for its American customers, like AMD, Apple, and Nvidia, who are feeling pressure from the White House to produce more of their products at home.

Wei indicated that the construction on the third and fourth fabs will commence this year, suggesting that TSMC is planning to ramp up its pace of construction. He left the start times for the fifth and sixth fabs an open question, saying that would be determined by customer demand. Wei also stressed that the company has been in touch with US officials to get the appropriate permits for the construction. Considering the White House’s push for US manufacturing, it would make sense to see the administration help TSMC get up to speed with its new plans.

By: DocMemory
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