Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden.
In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona.
“For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent weeks.
Photo: Reuters
“That’s a big deal — never been done before, never in our history, and lots of people said it couldn’t happen,” Raimondo said of the previously undisclosed production start.
A spokesperson for TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia, which is to report earnings next week, declined to comment on Friday.
TSMC in April last year agreed to expand its planned investment by US$25 billion to US$65 billion and to add a third Arizona fab by 2030.
COURTING FIRMS
The US Congress created a US$52.7 billion semiconductor manufacturing and research subsidy program in 2022.
All five leading-edge semiconductor firms agreed to locate fabs in the US as part of the program.
Raimondo earlier said that the Department of Commerce had to convince TSMC to boost its US plans.
“It didn’t happen on its own... We had to convince TSMC that they would want to expand,” Raimondo said.
TSMC would produce the world’s most advanced 2-nanometer technology at its second Arizona fab, which is expected to begin production in 2028.
The company also agreed to use its most advanced chip manufacturing technology, called “A16,” in Arizona.
The department has also awarded TSMC up to US$5 billion in low-cost government loans.
Raimondo said she wants the US to make 20 percent of world’s leading-edge logic chips by 2030 — up from none before TSMC began production in Arizona.
In April last year, the department said TSMC expects to begin high-volume production in its first US fab by the first half of this year.
The department last month finalized an award of US$407 million to help fund Amkor Technology’s planned US$2 billion advanced semiconductor packaging facility in Arizona, which is set to be the largest of its kind in the US.
Amkor’s Arizona plant, when fully operational, would package and test millions of chips for autonomous vehicles, 5G/6G and data centers. Apple would be its first and largest customer with the chips produced at a nearby TSMC facility.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS