Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, said on Tuesday at an event that Apple would buy the microchips that the U.S. made in an Arizona factory.
The plants in Arizona will focus on manufacturing the 4 nanometer and 3 nanomater chips, owned and operated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, that produces the advanced processors such as Apple’s A and M series, and chips for iPads, Macs, and iPhones.
Joe Biden, the U.S. President, has been looking to boost semiconductor production at home after the Covid-19 pandemic that caused disruption in the supply chain and led to shortages of chips for many items.
The U.S. government will partially subsidize the factory in Arizona, with billions of dollars to encourage it to build the chips manufacturing capability in the U.S. land. The move is supported by the CHIPS and Science Act that Biden signed into law earlier this year.
The planned investment of $40 billion for a new plant at Arizona plant in Phoenix, and the fist plant expected to produce chips by 2024, and the second plant will open in 2026, TSMC announced it on Tuesday.
The investment of TSMC to build two factories in Arizona raises concerns among Taiwanese economy, seeing this as a goodbye of the country’s backbone business.
However, Wang Mei-hua, the Minister of Taiwan Economy, said in the parliament that its position as a major semiconductor producer and maker of the most advanced chips was safe.
TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares closed on Wednesday, down 0.6%, in line with the broader index.
