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Just a couple of questions - I wonder how much capacity TSMC is bringing on line relative to its overall capacity. Despite the $12B investment, my understanding is that this is a small factory relative to others that TSMC has built and is building elsewhere. Hopefully, the US based wafer output will be cost competitive with similar fabs in other countries.
 
Hey did that Wisconsin Foxconn factory ever get built yet? I know the plans were scaled back a few times.
 
Just in time for Arizona to run out of water!
Exactly - came to the forums to post the same thing. This is the big elephant in the room. These fabs use an obscene amount of water. There may have been some very good incentives to build the plant there, but they should have looked beyond that and more closely at the long term viability. I'm all for a healthy foundry capability in the US, but putting it in Arizona was just dumb. Also, I suspect we'll have to more strongly invest in the education of the next generation of process engineers to drive all the R&D necessary to stay on the bleeding edge. And I wonder what happens when the China/Taiwan situation hits the fan...
 
Why in the world would TAIWAN Semiconductor stop making chips in Taiwan?
Sounds like some ethnic or racial fearmongering to me.

Have you ever been to Taiwain? It's one of the most robust electronics manufacturing communities on the planet. They used to make 90% of LCD screens there and basically every computer motherboard. Computer hardware is a huge business for the Taiwanese and the cutting edge stuff is only found in one place -- Taiwan. Anyway, as long as the Taiwanese have this expertise they will manufacture in their own country, unless someone can beat them. So far, no dice.

The US plants will be doing some impressive work, but all the cutting edge stuff will be done by the TAIWANESE Semiconductor corporation in TAIWAN. Do I like that? I don't really have an opinion, because I don't judge people by their national origin or ethnicity.
If you ever follow the news, you will know Taiwan has been a hotspot for US and China tension for decades. I don’t want to go political here, but the short version is, if China ever do something drastic, those semiconductor factories and people are going to be in danger. I’d much prefer TSMC migrate their technologies and production facilities away from Taiwan to preserve it than sticking to where it is and got demolished should things go bad. These technologies are extremely expensive (multi-billion dollars) to rebuild you know.

This is the main reason Arizona 5nm plant is critical for preserving the technology and people, plus it adds this whole “Made in USA” narrative.
 
Look at that, $12B of domestic chip plant investment that didn't need $52B in US government subsidies (handouts). And we sued Airbus/Europe for the same thing a few years ago.

Appears TSMC will/did receive various types of subsidies from both the fed and AZ/local govts for building the AZ factory.



 
Appears TSMC will/did receive various types of subsidies from both the fed and AZ/local govts for building the AZ factory.



As does every large company in the USA. Nearly all states offer incentives to any company that builds a manufacturing or large corporate presence in their state. There's nothing different or preferential to TSMC - they simply got what every other domestic company gets to attract their presence to a state.
 
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Appears TSMC will/did receive various types of subsidies from both the fed and AZ/local govts for building the AZ factory.



Not if they’re smart. The US bill requires unions and union wages.
 
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As does every large company in the USA. Nearly all states offer incentives to any company that builds a manufacturing or large corporate presence in their state. There's nothing different or preferential to TSMC - they simply got what every other domestic company gets to attract their presence to a state.
Which is not the point of your deflection.

Your original post said...
"BootsWalking said:
Look at that, $12B of domestic chip plant investment that didn't need $52B in US government subsidies (handouts)."
 
I would have thought by 2024 we would have gone beyond 5 NM, unless Apple is saving those for some lower end products like iPad and MacBook Air.
 
Just a couple of questions - I wonder how much capacity TSMC is bringing on line relative to its overall capacity. Despite the $12B investment, my understanding is that this is a small factory relative to others that TSMC has built and is building elsewhere. Hopefully, the US based wafer output will be cost competitive with similar fabs in other countries.
This is the first of several fab buildings for the site.
 
Just a couple of questions - I wonder how much capacity TSMC is bringing on line relative to its overall capacity. Despite the $12B investment, my understanding is that this is a small factory relative to others that TSMC has built and is building elsewhere. Hopefully, the US based wafer output will be cost competitive with similar fabs in other countries.
I'm not sure the capacity of this single plant, but it is relatively small in the overall production supply.

China, in response to the worldwide chip shortage (along with recent US sanction activity) is building 31 of these factories in 4 years. That is just *new supply* to say nothing of the number of plants already in production worldwide.

As chip makers race worldwide to boost production and ease supply shortages, no country is expanding faster than China, which is slated to build 31 major semiconductor factories, known as fabs, during the four years through 2024, according to the chip-industry group SEMI.
 
I’m happy to see this type of thing being built in the US, but is Phoenix really the best choice for this? Semiconductor manufacturing uses a lot of water, and Phoenix (and the entire Southwestern US) doesn’t exactly have a lot to spare given the mega-drought.
If you dig into TSMC’s operations more, I think it’s somewhere in the range of 92% of the water they use in manufacturing is recycled. Initial start up is large, but is not constant from what I understand.
 
If China does dare to attack and occupy Taiwan, TSMC should destroy the key equipment in their factory to prevent to make the technology available to the Chinese.
This would ensure that an important reason for an invasion by Xi would be removed.
It is a very good move for the Western world that TSMC also produces unassailable in the US.
 
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Look closely at what you quoted from me..."US government". Reading comprehension is essential if you want to ever call someone out on something.
The company will most likely get some of that new govt aid as part of the bill that passed.
Try updating your research before saying that it will Not need or receive any US Govt aid.
There are already media articles on how the new legislation will most likely help chip companies.
Regardless, as even You have pointed out already, many companies get Some govt aid for building their factories in the US, regardless of Fed or state/local level aid, as that's widely publicized and known for years.
 
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The company will most likely get some of that new govt aid as part of the bill that passed.
Try updating your research before saying that it will NOT receive Any US Govt aid.
There are already media articles on how the new legislation will most likely help chip companies.
Regardless, as even You have pointed out already, many companies get Some govt aid for building their factories in the US, regardless of Fed or state/local level aid, as that's already widely publicized for years.
TSMC committed $12B of its own capital for this fab long before the idea for this bill even came into being, which is precisely the point I made about TSMC not needing the federal subsidy the bill provides. You can't use a time machine to travel backwards in time to make a point.
 
Why in the world would TAIWAN Semiconductor stop making chips in Taiwan?
Sounds like some ethnic or racial fearmongering to me.
Not at all. If you're aware of the geopolitics in that area, Taiwan is on the threat of being invaded by China. China sees Taiwan as a "breakaway province" of their country, which is why they feel entitled to invade and annex their territory if they can. The west and China are of course not the best of buds, so it's a bad idea if China has control of Taiwan because that would mean they can also control a huge portion of the chip market.

Also, I'd rather not put all eggs in one basket. I'm sure Apple has learned their lesson after the huge delays on the Macbook Pros recently.
 
A multibillion dollar company and they can't even use Google Translate? The sign in Spanish has grammatical errors.
 
TSMC committed $12B of its own capital for this fab long before the idea for this bill even came into being, which is precisely the point I made about TSMC not needing the federal subsidy the bill provides. You can't use a time machine to travel backwards in time to make a point.

"Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the semiconductor company building a $12 billion plant in Arizona, has reportedly secured aid from federal and state governments...
TSMC announced it will build a $12 billion chip fabrication plant in Arizona, creating more than 1,600 jobs. The company expects construction on the plant to kick off in 2021...
The size of the subsidies is still under negotiations, however. "We are still talking to the U.S. government.""


The point being that even though the company may have paid the initial amount itself (not referenced directly as certain in the article as it says that TSMC "secured aid from Federal and State govts"), it does Not negate the information already publicized elsewhere that the company did/will receive some types of govt aid, Fed or state/local, at that time or in the future.

How obtuse you want to be about being 'right' about about what TSMC actually privately negotiated with the Fed and State/local govts?
Were you actually there or anyone else here at Macrumors? Doubtful!

It's commonplace for manufacturing companies to ask for govt subsidies before it builds the factories inside the US/state. Sometimes it's not publicized enough for people to know but many are publicized eventually.
 
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