President Biden to semiconductor manufacturers. The White House Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is receiving $6.6 billion in grants to build three manufacturing plants, also called fabs, in the Phoenix, Arizona region. Added to this are some $5 billion in government loans.
As part of this deal, TSMC agreed to expand its planned investment in Arizona by $25 billion, to $65 billion. The company is being built in the state, with a third promised by 2030. The White House says this represents the largest foreign direct investment in Arizona history, with expectations of generating 6,000 high-wage tech jobs and 20,000 jobs in the state. construction to the state.
An ingenious aspect of these factories is that they will allow TSMC to complete all aspects of the chip manufacturing process on US soil, including advanced packaging. I'm not talking about putting a box and warranty information around the chip. In this context, packaging refers to the arrangement of the various components to build the final product, as well as adding energy, inputs and outputs. As things currently stand, even components are manufactured in the United States and then mailed around the world once again for final sale. These Arizona factories will eventually put an end to all that jet-setting.
Once all three factories are up and running, they are said to make tens of millions of chips to power products such as smartphones, autonomous vehicles and, of course, ai data center servers. Future iPhones and Macs will use 4nm and 3nm chips made in Phoenix plants, thanks to a partnership with Apple. TSMC already has the first two factories, but the current plan is for the first to be fully operational next year, the second in 2028 and the third in 2030.
The White House says this investment, along with other CHIPS Act grants and loans, will make the United States a global powerhouse in chip manufacturing. The federal government suggests the United States will make 20 percent of the world's next-generation chips by 2030.
“The United States invented these chips, but over time we went from producing almost 40 percent of global capacity to about 10 percent, and none of the most advanced chips, exposing us to significant economic and national security vulnerabilities.” ”said President Biden.
One of the main goals of the CHIPS Act is to attract global chipmakers to build on American soil, and it appears to be working. Last week, Samsung announced it would reach $44 billion, with plans for ambitious expansion. Multinational semiconductor company GlobalFoundries will help pay for a new manufacturing facility in New York that will handle chip manufacturing for the automotive, aerospace, defense and artificial intelligence industries. Intel recently took up to $8.5 billion to continue several U.S.-based operations.
