WASHINGTON (Reuters)-TSMC, Taiwan’s semiconductor company, plans to make a new US $ 100 billion investment involving the construction of five additional chips facilities in the coming years, the CEO said with US President Donald Trump on Monday.
Taiwan’s dominant position as a chip manufacturer used in technologies ranging from cell phones and combat jets has generated concerns about excessive dependence on the island, especially as China intensifies pressure to affirm its claims of sovereignty.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer and one of the leading suppliers of leading US hardware manufacturers, revealed the plan when the CC Wei chief executive met with Trump in the White House.
“We must be able to build the chips and semiconductors we need right here,” said Trump. “It’s a matter of national security for us.”
TSMC said the expansion includes plans for three new chip factories, two advanced packaging facilities and a large research and development center.
The $ 100 billion disbursement to boost domestic production and make the United States less dependent on Asia’s manufactured semiconductor follows last April news that TSMC intends to expand US $ 25 billion planned investment to $ 65 billion and add a third factory in Arizona by 2030.
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TSMC did not give a deadline to any of its new investments, and say that the effort would add 40,000 construction jobs over the next four years.
The construction of its first Arizona factory was delays, and the company ended up starting chip production in 2024 at a higher cost than in its facilities in Taiwan.
The shares of the company listed in Taiwan fell 2% on Tuesday.
“Higher costs are definitely a concern for TSMC,” said Andrew Tsai, president of the Taiwanese capital consulting company Investment Management Corp.
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As an important partner of NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Advanced Micro Devices, TSMC is critical to US chip industry, and bringing more of its production to US soil would resolve a great risk of the supply chain for these companies.
Taiwan’s company could also play a central role to save Intel rival.
Trump government officials met with Wei in New York this year to deal with the possibility of taking a majority participation in a joint venture at Intel’s manufacturing unit as part of an agreement for several chip companies to take a participation in the venture, a source said.
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Intel did not answer questions about the meetings.
