Apple Chipmaker TSMC Reveals Plans For Its Second US Factory

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, more commonly referred to as TSMC, has announced plans to bring another semiconductor facility to the United States. The company plans to build and operate a $12 billion factory in Arizona, where it will use its 5-nanometer technology to produce 20,000 semiconductor wafers per month. The company plans to start construction on the new facility next year.

TSMC follows Intel and Samsung as one of the world's biggest chipmakers; its semiconductors are used by many major tech companies, including Apple and Huawei. Though most of its manufacturing takes place in Taiwan, the company already has one factory in the US — in Washington, specifically — as well as design centers in California and Texas.

The Arizona facility will mark TSMC's second manufacturing destination within the US. In its announcement on Friday, the company said that it will create 1,600 "high-tech professional jobs" in Arizona as a result of the launch, as well as thousands of additional "indirect jobs" related to manufacturing. Assuming construction starts in 2021 as planned, the factory is expected to go live in 2024.

Overall, TSMC expects that it will spend around $12 billion from 2021 to 2029 on this new facility, which the company said will enable it to "better support our customers and partners," among other things. Of note, TSMC is the company behind Apple's A-series chips.

Numerous past rumors have indicated that Apple is planning Macs that feature its own chips rather than continuing reliance on Intel. A report from Bloomberg in April claimed that Apple's 2021 Mac will feature a 12-core 5-nanometer ARM processor. That report claimed that TSMC would manufacture the Mac chips based on the same 5nm fabrication process it plans for the Arizona facility.