Chipmaker TSMC said that it aims to invest “at least” $100 billion in chip manufacturing plants in the U.S. over the next four years as part of an effort to expand the company’s network of semiconductor factories.
President Donald Trump announced the news during a press conference Monday. TSMC’s cash infusion will fund the construction of several new facilities in Arizona, C. C. Wei, chairman and CEO of TSMC, said during the briefing.
“We are going to produce many AI chips … to support AI progress,” Wei said.
TSMC previously pledged to pour $65 billion into U.S.-based fabrication plants and has received up to $6.6 billion in grants from the CHIPS Act, a major Biden administration-era law that sought to boost domestic semiconductor production. The new investment brings TSMC’s total investments in the U.S. chip industry to around $165 billion, Trump said in prepared remarks.
For years, the U.S. has expressed concerns about TSMC’s near-monopoly on chip manufacturing and has urged the company to relocate more of its production to the U.S. The types of advanced chip packaging that TSMC specializes in are particularly critical for AI chips, the demand for which has steeply increased correspondingly with the AI boom.
Since taking office, Trump has said he would impose tariffs on foreign chip production in order to return chip manufacturing to the U.S. and threatened to end the CHIPS Act, which he’s criticized as inadequate. Experts have warned that Trump’s approach could slow — or potentially even harm — the U.S.’ AI progress, however.
Daniel Newman, CEO of the Futurum Group, a tech advisory firm, said he expects that TSMC’s investment will be tied to a delay in tariffs or contingent on meeting specific requirements, which he said would be a “win” for the administration.
“As the U.S. continues to push for increased domestic manufacturing and with tariffs on the horizon, a substantial commitment from TSMC could serve as a strategic gesture of goodwill,” Newman told TechCrunch via email.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip maker, already has several facilities in the U.S., including a factory in Arizona that began mass production late last year. But the company currently reserves its most sophisticated facilities for its home country of Taiwan.
The U.S. considers TSMC’s heavy Taiwanese presence a strategic risk because of growing threats from the mainland Chinese government. Trump and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have reportedly pressed TSMC to take over and manage Intel’s chip plants in the U.S., which have been beset by logistical challenges.
Since taking office, Trump has made several White House appearances with tech CEOs and investors to announce large U.S. infrastructure projects. In January, OpenAI and SoftBank pledged to invest as much as half a trillion dollars in a domestic AI data center network. Just last week, Apple said it planned to spend more than $500 billion to expand its U.S. manufacturing footprint.
The pledges have tended to be light on the details, however — and experts have questioned their feasibility.