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Definition: TSMC


(Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, Ltd. Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan) With more than 60,000 employees, TSMC is the world's largest "pure-play" semiconductor foundry, which means it manufactures chips only for its customers using their designs. It is also considered the most important chip company on the planet because it makes 90% of the state-of-the-art chips for the top tech companies, including Apple and NVIDIA. Samsung is the only other company that makes these chips, but TSMC is now the only one in America. See foundry.

Founded in 1987 by Morris Chang, TSMC was the first company dedicated to making chips for "fabless" chip companies. It was also first to produce state-of-the-art five-nanometer chips and one of the first for 3 nm. See EUV machine and GlobalFoundries.






A $60+ Billion Investment in Arizona
TSMC took the photos above in October 2022 where new chip fabs were being built in North Phoenix, Arizona that would employ 6,000 people. Given the uncertainty surrounding China's perpetual threat to take over Taiwan, the company's Arizona investment seems essential for the U.S. tech sector. The goal of having the first fab operational by 2025 was met, and TSMC is producing chips with 4 nm nodes. The second fab is expected to go online in 2027 and support 2 and 3 nm nodes, while additional Arizona fabs are planned in the future. See process technology).

Creating these fabs is no easy feat. TSMC employees in Taiwan work harder and more hours than their American counterparts, thus causing issues when American hires are trained in Taiwan. In addition, these plants are extremely complex and setting them up is an enormous undertaking, and in a foreign country no less... America.




Chip Capital of America?
Phoenix, Arizona is rapidly becoming the "Chip Capital of America" because TSMC is adding a huge boost to what is already a semiconductor neighborhood. Two major chip companies, Intel and Microchip, have been in the greater Phoenix area since the 1980s, and Intel is also building another plant. Over the decades, a local support system has matured for machine parts and logistics. Schools continue to add classes to support the industry, and the University of Arizona (UA) and Arizona State University (ASU) have built mock clean rooms so students learn what it is really like to work in this environment (see clean room).





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