The TSMC factory in Arizona is going well, although its chips are more expensive than those of Taiwan

Lisa her, the general director of AMD, He has just confirmed what we suspect since the beginning of this year: semiconductors that It is already manufacturing The new TSMC plant in Phoenix (Arizona) are Between 5 and 20% more expensive that the comparable integrated circuits produced in Taiwan. AMD will receive its first chips manufactured in this plant at the end of 2025, and given the increase in costs with all likelihood its market price It will be taller than that of semiconductors from Taiwan.

Even so, Smooth his He maintains that the existence of this factory in the US is good news for all, for companies and users, because it contributes to the diversification of the supply of the chips and the strengthening of the distribution chain. According to histhanks to this plant and those that will arrive in the future will be more difficult for it to occur again A semiconductor crisis As serious as the one that triggered the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2023.

Despite all the performance of the TSMC factory in Arizona it is high

According to financial journalist Walter BloombergTSMC will increase the price of integrated circuits produced by 30% in the US to compensate for the costs triggered by tariffs on the production equipment of imported chips from Europe and Japan. Of course, the Government led by Donald Trump has not yet revealed how the import tariffs of photolithography machines used by TSMC, Intel or Samsung plants in the US will affect the importation tariffs.

In mid -April 2024 CC Wei, the executive who at that time held the reins of TSMC, advance that the increase in costs derived from the manufacture of integrated avant -garde circuits in the plants that the company has outside of Taiwan It would be assumed by both TSMC and its customers: “If my client wants to manufacture in a specific area (out of Taiwan) then TSMC and the client himself will have to share the increase in costs (…) We are already discussing it with our customers.”

Whatever it is beyond the costs linked to the production of chips in the US, The TSMC factory in Arizona is fine. This plant is manufacturing semiconductors in the N4 node (5 Nm). Lithographs N4 and N4P are part of the TSMC Finfet integration technologies family, although on paper the N4P process is a bit more refined. In any case, the plant we are talking about will not be the only one that this company will have in Arizona.

The second factory will be operational in 2028 and will produce integrated circuits in N3 (3 Nm) and N2 (2 Nm) nodes. And finally, the third factory will not be listed at all until the end of this decade and It will produce chips in the node N2 (2 nm). TSMC can manufacture integrated 2 nm circuits In its US plants, although the Taiwanese administration will cauture the use of this technology in the country led by Donald Trump.

“Private companies must make their own commercial decisions covered in their own technological progress (…) TSMC is building factories in the US with the purpose of serving their US clients because 60% of the world’s chip designer companies are based precisely in the US.” These words of Jw KuoMinister of Economic Affairs of Taiwan, are a declaration of intentions. It will be interesting to verify how the relationship of the US and Taiwan governments in the future prosper.

Image | TSMC

More information | SCMP

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