Chipmaker TSMC said it aims to invest “at least” $100 billion in US chip manufacturing plants over the next four years as part of its efforts to expand its network of semiconductor factories.
President Donald Trump announced the news at a press conference Monday. TSMC’s cash injections will fund the construction of several new facilities in Arizona by TSMC’s Chairman and CEO CC Wei.
“We’ll create a lot of AI chips to support the advancement of AI,” says Wei.
TSMC previously received a grant of up to $6.6 billion from the Chips Act, a major Biden-controlled era law that pledged $65 billion to US-based manufacturing plants and sought to boost domestic semiconductor production. The new investment will bring TSMC’s total investment in the US chip industry to around $165 billion, Trump said in a prepared statement.
For many years, the US has expressed concern about TSMC’s near-monopoly on chip manufacturing, urging the company to move to the US the kind of advanced chip packages that TSMC specializes in is particularly important for AI chips.
Since taking office, Trump has threatened to end the Chips Act, saying he will impose tariffs on foreign chip production to bring chip production back to the US. Experts warn that Trump’s approach could slow or potentially harm the advancement of AI in the US.
Daniel Newman, CEO of high-tech advisory firm Futurum Group, said he expects TSMC’s investment to be linked to delays in tariffs or to meet certain requirements.
“As the US continues to drive increased domestic manufacturing and tariffs on the horizon, substantial commitment from TSMC could serve as a strategic gesture of goodwill,” Newman told TechCrunch in an email.
TSMC, the world’s largest contracted chip maker, already has several facilities in the US, including a factory in Arizona that began mass production late last year. However, the company currently reserves the most sophisticated facilities for its home country, Taiwan.
The US considers TSMC’s large Taiwan presence a strategic risk due to the growing threat from mainland China government. Trump and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick reportedly pressed TSMC to take over and manage the U.S. Intel chip plant.
Since taking office, Trump has appeared in the White House with high-tech CEOs and investors, and has unveiled a massive US infrastructure project. In January, Openai and Softbank committed to investing as much as $5 trillion in the domestic AI data center network. Last week, Apple said it plans to spend more than $500 billion to expand its US manufacturing footprint.
However, the pledge tended to shed light on the details. And experts question their feasibility.
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