TSMC will invest $100 bn to build chip manufacturing facilities in US: Trump

Washington: US President Donald Trump has said that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) will invest $100 billion to build advanced chip producing facilities in the United States, as he is seeking to use tariffs to bolster domestic manufacturing.

The announcement came after Trump accused Taiwan last month of taking US. chip businesses away, arguing that those businesses should come back to America. During his confirmation hearing in January, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also claimed that TSMC “leveraged” the US and took chip businesses from the US, reports Yonhap news agency.

“Today, Taiwan Semiconductor is announcing that they will be investing at least $100 billion in new capital in the U.S. over the next short period of time to build state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facilities,” he said after a meeting with TSMC CEO C.C. Wei at the White House. “I think mostly, it’s going to be in Arizona, which is a great state.”

The $100 billion investment plan is in addition to the Taiwanese tech titan’s current $65 billion investment in Arizona, the TSMC CEO said. It is to be used to build five cutting-edge fabrication facilities in the Grand Canyon State.

“Most importantly, actually, we are going to produce AI chips. We are going to produce many chips to support AI progress,” the TSMC CEO said.

In November, the Commerce Department under the preceding Biden administration announced it finalised a $6.6 billion government subsidy for TSMC’s U.S. unit for chip production in Phoenix, Arizona.

TSMC’s investment move is likely to be keenly watched by South Korean chipmakers, Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix, as Trump has been using tariffs as a key policy tool to boost domestic manufacturing and pare down America’s trade deficits.

Late last year, the Commerce Department said it awarded Samsung Electronics up to $4.7 billion in direct funding to support the South Korean tech giant’s chipmaking investment in central Texas, and give up to $458 million in direct funding and up to $500 million in loans to SK hynix for its investment in Indiana.

—IANS