The Taiwanese chipmaker wants to invest $40 billion in factories in Arizona

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC to more than triple its investment in factories in the US state of Arizona for a total of 40 billion dollars. There will be an official moment later today with President Joe Biden and Apple CEO Tim Cook, among others.

This is an important moment for Biden. This was underlined by the Bloomberg news agency that politically Arizona is an important state for a possible re-election of Biden and for Democrats in general.

Also, the construction of TSMC is part of Biden’s plan to bring more chip manufacturing to the US. This desire is also alive in Europe. The worldwide shortage of chips that emerged during the corona crisis and the lockdowns during that crisis have brought the two continents to face the facts. Chip production is excessive in Asia and that needs to change, they think.

The US and the EU have made billions of dollars and euros available for this. It is not yet clear what (tax) benefits TSMC will receive and received for the construction in Arizona. Earlier this year Intel has announced the construction of an industrial complex in Germany. TSMC would also look to Germany.

It is no coincidence that the CEO of Apple Cook is present today. Apple is a major customer of TSMC and has urged the manufacturer to build more manufacturing capacity in the US, wrote Bloomberg earlier. The iPhone maker is said to be planning to buy about a third of the capacity in Arizona.

TSMC is currently building a large factory in the state capital Phoenix, which is expected to be operational in 2024 and cost $12 billion. Additionally, there will be a second production site to be completed two years later.

The new factories will produce advanced computer chips, but not the latest ones. says a source at the Financial Times which maintains the prevailing principle that production in the United States is a generation behind that produced by TSMC in its home country of Taiwan.