On January 15, the United States and the Taiwan region of China finalized a trade agreement, under which companies from the Taiwan region will invest $250 billion to expand U.S. production capacity in semiconductors, energy, and artificial intelligence. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stated that the agreement includes the $100 billion investment already pledged by semiconductor giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) for 2025, with additional funds to follow. The world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, revealed during its January 15 earnings call that it plans to add more capacity in the United States, but did not disclose specifics regarding investments beyond its previously committed $165 billion. The following are the detailed milestones of TSMC's U.S. investment projects:
January 2026: TSMC announced it had acquired a second plot of land in Arizona, U.S., to support its expansion plans and enhance its flexibility to meet strong demand in the artificial intelligence sector. This initiative will help TSMC establish a large, independent wafer fab cluster in Arizona. March 2025: TSMC announced an increase in its U.S. investment scale to $165 billion. The funds are allocated for the construction of three new wafer fabs, two advanced packaging plants, and one research and development center. April 2024: The Taiwan-based foundry announced plans to build a third wafer fab in Arizona, pushing its total investment beyond $65 billion. December 2022: TSMC stated it would add a second wafer fab at its Arizona campus, raising the total planned investment to $40 billion. May 2020: TSMC announced an initial investment of $12 billion to build its first advanced semiconductor wafer fab in Arizona.
Construction Status of the Arizona Manufacturing Base
First Wafer Fab: This facility is officially operational, having commenced mass production of 4-nanometer process chips in the fourth quarter of 2024. Second Wafer Fab: Construction is complete, with tool-in and installation planned for 2026. This fab will utilize 3-nanometer process technology and is expected to begin mass production in the second half of 2027. Third Wafer Fab: Construction began in April 2025. It will produce chips using 2-nanometer and more advanced processes, targeting mass production by the end of 2030. Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Wafer Fabs, Two Advanced Packaging Plants, and One R&D Center: TSMC is applying for construction permits for the fourth wafer fab and the first advanced packaging plant. Timelines for the remaining projects have not yet been announced.
Client Base Apple, NVIDIA, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Qualcomm are all clients of TSMC's Arizona wafer fabs. In April 2025, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that Apple is the first and largest customer of TSMC's Arizona facility. In October 2025, TSMC's Arizona fab began mass production of NVIDIA's "Blackwell" series Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) using the advanced N4P process.
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