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Redirected from: Taiwan Semiconductor

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's Taylor, Texas plant is expected to make chips for Apple in 2026. 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, TSMC 3DFabric and GlobalFoundries.






A $165 Billion Investment in Arizona
TSMC took the photos above in October 2022 when its 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 is 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 four more wafer fabs, two advanced packaging facilities and one R&D facility are planned for the future. In 2026, TSMC acquired 900 more acres near the original 1,149 acres. Until TSMC has an Arizona packaging facility, chips go back to Taiwan for final packaging (see TSMC 3DFabric).

These plants are extremely complex and setting them up is an enormous undertaking, and in a foreign country no less... America. See chip feature size.




Who Would Have Thought?
Phoenix, Arizona has become the "Chip Capital of America" because of TSMC's gigantic boost to what has been a semiconductor region for decades. 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 years, a local support system has matured for machine parts and logistics. Even schools support the industry. For example, University of Arizona (UA) and Arizona State University (ASU) have built clean rooms so students learn what how to work in this environment (see clean room). See Intel and Microchip Technology.





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