(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Facing Trump's tariffs on foreign-made chips, Taiwan's TSMC plans to invest $100 billion in new semiconductor factories in the US.
The money will go toward "five cutting-edge fabrication" facilities in Arizona, Trump said at a Monday event at the White House with TSMC CEO CC Wei.
“Without the semiconductors, there is no economy,” Trump said. It's "a tremendous move by the most powerful company in the world."
TSMC's CEO also noted that the $100 billion is on top of the $65 billion the company has already committed to the Arizona site, where it's building three fabs. “We are going to build three more new fabs," two advanced packaging fabs for the chips, and an R&D center, Wei said.
The resulting investment will help the US grab 40% of the semiconductor market while creating tens of thousands of US jobs, Trump said. How TSMC will fund the $100 billion wasn’t made clear. But in his remarks, Wei thanked his clients, including Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Apple. (Cupertino is also making a $500 billion investment related to US manufacturing.)
"They all support TSMC's manufacturing in the US," Wei said. "Without their support, we probably cannot make it true."
The White House has threatened to impose tariffs on foreign-made chips, starting at 25% and going as high as 100%. “Taiwan took our chip business away,” Trump told reporters last month. At today's event, Trump didn't say if he still plans to impose those tariffs.
The tariffs risk impacting the price of PCs, smartphones, graphics cards, and more given TSMC's lengthy client list. But it looks like the chip maker is trying to head them off. TSMC "want to avoid the tariffs,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said at the event.
TSMC is already producing chips at the first of the three fabs in Arizona. But the majority of TSMC’s factories, including its most cutting-edge chip-making processes, are based in Taiwan, which faces the threat of invasion from China.
Last year, the Biden administration also gave TSMC $11.6 billion in grants and loans to help fund the company’s factories in Arizona.
In the meantime, Trump said his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and new 10% tariffs on China will go into effect tomorrow, with "no room left" for the countries left to negotiate.