The Arizona Fab: On Track for Q1 2024
TSMC, which for years has produced all of its chips using advanced fabrication processes exclusively in Taiwan, last year announced plans to build a $12 billion N5/N5P/N5A-capable (5 nm) fab in Arizona and recently started its construction. The move will significantly improve TSMC’s positions in the U.S. among customers that would prefer to produce chips in the country (i.e., those who serve government and military agencies) and will allow TSMC to diversify its manufacturing base.
The fab is set to start mass production of chips in the first quarter of 2024. Its initial manufacturing capacity will be about 20,000 300-mm wafer starts per month, which is a pretty small fab by TSMC’s standards. But even before construction started, unofficial sources began to indicate that TSMC was contemplating building additional fab modules to expand capacity of its manufacturing operations in the U.S.
At the conference call with financial analysts and investors the company officially confirmed that it was mulling expansion of its Arizona production capacity, but did not elaborate.
Does Biden know? /sarc