The U.S. Department of Commerce has concluded its due diligence and has now awarded TSMC Arizona Corporation (TSMC Arizona), a subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), up to $6.6 billion in direct funding.
The grant will go towards the operations of TSMC Arizona’s three manufacturing facilities in the country. All three are planned to be located in Arizona and the first is projected to start commercial production in early 2025.
U.S. president Biden is quoted to have said back in 2022 that “the United States invented semiconductors and used to manufacture nearly 40% of the world’s chips, but now makes closer to 10% of them and none of the most advanced chips”.
The grant to TSMC Arizona is intended to help change that situation quickly and return the U.S. to its pride of place in the production of cutting edge chips. It is also projected to create “over 125,000 new construction and manufacturing jobs” in the country.
According to a statement by the U.S. Department of Commerce, “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”.
It has always been a thing of wonder why the U.S. gave up its semiconductor manufacturing edge and for so long. It is good to see the government taking steps to rectify that.