TSMC is the second company after Polar Semiconductor to finalize its agreement.
“Currently, the United States does not make on our shores any leading-edge chips, and this is the first time ever that we’ll be able to say we will be making these leading-edge chips in the United States,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters Thursday.
“I want to remind everyone that these are the chips that run AI and quantum computing. These are the chips that are in sophisticated military equipment,” Raimondo added.
Making these chips in the United States, she noted, helps address a national security liability.
The first of TSMC’s three facilities is set to fully open by early-2025, Biden noted.
At full capacity, the three facilities in Arizona are expected to “manufacture tens of millions of leading-edge logic chips that will power products like 5G/6G smartphones, autonomous vehicles, and high-performance computing and AI applications,” the Commerce Department said.
It added that “early production yields at the first TSMC plant in Arizona are on par with similar factories in Taiwan”.
