Already comprising a major presence in the southern Arizona semiconductor manufacturing world, the company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing appears to be on the verge of adding yet one more factory to its Grand Canyon State footprint.
The growing Hsinchu, Taiwan-based company, founded in 1987 and with annual revenues in excess of $35 billion, has in recent months been in the process of building a second manufacturing facility in metro Phoenix.
Now, owing to federal funding in the neighborhood of $6.6 billion, the company has announced plans for yet a third facility. Construction of the new plant, remarked White House economic adviser Lael Brainard to reporters, will make Arizona a “hub for innovation,” while also “positioning it to be a world leader for decades.”
The funding is coming via the federal Commerce Department and is part of the massive 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.
The new plant, to go up on the north side of Phoenix near the intersection of Dove Valley Road and 43rd Avenue, will help push TSMC into the upper stratosphere of chip manufacturing.
Work on the second $40 billion TSMC Phoenix facility has not been without challenges. A dispute with the Arizona Building and Construction Trades Council, which was finally resolved last year, has been thought to delay the anticipated completion of the facility by at least a year from 2026 to 2027. Other reports have said the plant may not be done until early 2028.
TSMC chairman Mark Liu has also pointed to a lack of skilled workers as an additional reason for the second factory’s delayed construction schedule.
President Biden has hailed the new federal funding for the third TSMC plant, remaking in a statement from the White House: “These facilities will manufacture the most advanced chips in the world, putting us on track to produce 20% of the world’s leading-edge semiconductors by 2030.”
By Garry Boulard
