On Monday, President Donald Trump announced that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., (TSMC) will invest $100 billion into U.S. chip manufacturing.
Trump remarked the investment as a terrific undertaking from the world leading chipmaker. The investment would bring TSMC total U.S. investment up to $165 billion, which will be poured into the construction of five new chip plants in Arizona.
The move from the main supplier of Nvidia and Apple’s AI chips aligns with Trump’s goal of turning the U.S. into the global artificial intelligence hub.
In January, Trump announced a joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank to invest billions of dollars into the U.S. AI infrastructure called “Stargate”. He also called for the return of chip manufacturing back to the U.S.
Trump’s goal of bolstering the U.S. AI capability was cited as a matter of economic and national security concerns.
Trump has previously accused Taiwan for stealing U.S. chip making industry, and has threatened a tariff on semiconductor imports. Wendall Huang, CFO of TSMC, said in January that he believed the new administration will continue to support the company’s endeavor in the U.S.
Prior to the announcement, TSMC had previously spent $12 billion in 2020 to build its first chip factory in Arizona, it then later investing additional $65 billion into a third Arizona plant. The Taiwanese chipmaker also received a $6.6 billion subsidy from the U.S. Commerce Department.
