Seems like Arizona is in this administration’s good graces and should benefit form any sort of pork that comes out of this administration. Seems like more jobs coming to Arizona.
“TSMC to Build Chip Plant in Arizona With Government Support”
(Bloomberg) — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is planning to build a multibillion-dollar chip plant in Arizona, a potential realignment of global trade designed to allay U.S. concerns over supply chain security.The Taiwanese company is negotiating a deal with the administration of President Donald Trump to manufacture semiconductors in the U.S. to create jobs and produce sensitive components domestically for national security reasons, according to people familiar with the situation. Talks have been progressing swiftly in recent days and an announcement could come as early as Friday, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the deal is not public yet.
“We are now actively evaluating the U.S. fab plan,” TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said on a recent analyst conference call, referring to fabs, the industry term for chip factories. “There is a cost gap, which is hard to accept at this point. Of course, we have — we are doing a lot of things to reduce that cost gap.”
TSMC is the largest and most advanced maker of chips for other companies. Its factories, which are primarily located in Taiwan, produce important components designed by Apple Inc. and most of the largest semiconductor companies, including Qualcomm Inc., Nvidia Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and China’s Huawei Technologies Co. That makes TSMC a crucial part of many electronic devices, such as smartphones, laptops and servers running the internet, and corporate and government computer networks.An agreement would call for TSMC to build a plant in Arizona by 2023, according to the people. It’s unclear what type of support the project will get from the federal government or the state of Arizona.
A cutting-edge fab is expensive to build. TSMC spent NT$500 billion ($17 billion) to build an advanced facility in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan that will churn out components for new iPhones this year. It plans another $16 billion in capital spending this year.
If the federal government provides cash for a U.S. plant, it’ll mark a shift in policy and rhetoric from a Republican administration. Trump’s White House has rarely supported such direct industrial intervention, favoring market dynamics. However, emerging trends may be forcing a reconsideration. The U.S. government is already giving or lending billions of dollars to keep companies afloat in the midst of a pandemic-fueled recession. The crisis has also highlighted how vulnerable global supply chains are to such shocks.
Semiconductor companies have not really slowed down due to covid, at least not yet. And neither has their stock price…
Semiconductors are critical to high tech supply chain. Asking a US company to build something from the ground up is not feasible (Intel is the only US company that still has a fab). However, getting Taiwan Semiconductor (who is #1) who is also a U.S. ally might actually work… Because TSM would have a vested interest to have a fab on US soil if it means skirting future import tariffs. And sensitive chips used for military and communications could be securely done here, instead of overseas. It could be a win for both US and Taiwan.
I’m biased. Maybe if you were talking about a rental property in Nevada, I would say hell no, back out. But seems like Arizona and Colorado…I don’t know. The probably aren’t getting hit as hard.
