TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC said on Monday it would invest another NT$3.29 trillion (US$100 billion) to build five more facilities in the US during an announcement made by CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and US President Donald Trump at the White House.
"The most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America, and it'll be a big percentage of the chips made by this company," said Trump. He said this will bring TSMC's total US investments to US$165 billion.
Trump said semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st-century economy, as industries such as AI, automobiles, and advanced manufacturing heavily rely on them. “We must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here,” he said.
He also said Taiwan has a monopoly on chip production, and TSMC’s expanded US investment is a matter of economic and national security for Washington. Trump said it would also allow TSMC to diversify its operations and manufacture in “a very safe place.”
Wei said TSMC’s first wafer fab in Arizona is already operational and has 3,000 employees. He said TSMC's new investment will see three more chip fabs, two advanced packaging facilities, and an R&D center built in Arizona.
TSMC did not provide a timeline for any of the new investments, according to Reuters.
Wei added that TSMC will manufacture many AI chips in the US to support the development of AI and smartphones. He also expressed gratitude for Trump’s support and US customers like Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, and Broadcom.
During the question and answer session, Trump said that if TSMC had only built chips in Taiwan, “they’ll have 25% or 30% or 50% or whatever the number may be someday. It’ll go only up.” However, by announcing this major investment, Trump said Wei “has no tariffs, so he's way ahead of the game.”
When asked whether this new investment would minimize the impact on the US if China blockaded or invaded Taiwan, Trump responded, “I can't say ‘minimize.’” He said military action by China would be “a catastrophic event.”
He said that TSMC's increased investments in US chipmaking “will at least give us a position where we have — in this very, very important business, we would have a very big part of it in the United States.” However, he stressed that “it would have a big impact if something should happen with Taiwan.”
