Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has reached a significant milestone in its expansion into the US. Recent trial production at the company’s new Arizona facility has yielded results comparable to those of its established plants in Taiwan, according to Bloomberg, which cited a person familiar with the company who requested anonymity. This development is a positive sign for the chipmaker’s ambitious US project, which has faced delays and doubts about whether it could match the production efficiency of its Taiwanese operations.
Didn’t know they were starting with 4nm chips, that’s pretty impressive. I thought TSMC was keeping a more significant edge for their Taiwan fabs, but they’re only making 3nm.
If they’re making 3nm in Taiwan, and this unopened factory is 4nm, I imagine they already got 2nm or whatever is next already planned for Taiwan. So it could vary between 1 and 2 generations behind in that case.
Why is anyone building critical infrastructure in Arizona?
I think the area is seismically stable, which is a major factor for this kind of manufacturing.
Arizona has fairly consistent and predictable weather, decently reliable power grids (with access to cleaner energy sources like solar, hydro, and nuclear), and is pretty seismically stable. Plus Phoenix has been trying to set itself up as a bit of a tech hub for a while now so you have access to an existing market of skilled labor plus a supply to fresh talent from ASU (and the other universities).
Thank you for your thoughtful answer to my sassy nonsense.
Cheap land and tax incentives to do so.
Low taxes brought to you by a severely underfunded school system and absolute zero protections for climate or workers.
Yeah but at least they don’t have any water.
I thought making these things requires a shitton of water. Arizona has a pretty dry climate last I checked.
As I recall that was a significant concern early on. And part of the deal was that they recycle their water, and keep the fresh water consumption below a certain level.
That way they don’t have to deprive the farmers growing water hungry crops in the desert with 80% of the local water supply.
Why not?
That’s good maybe tsmc will figure out you don’t need to treat your employees like slaves to get good results
That would be in a world better than this one. Unions and a strong government that serves its people is how things like that are accomplished. Big businesses in an unregulated capitalist system will always choose profit over people.
The fact that it needs to come from a “familiar with the company” anonymous source instead of the official source gives me pause in believing this 100%. Plants like this have been known to game the system for tax purposes while not actually making anything. And like everything, time for me to find the appropriate The Dollop episode.
The Dollop
#456 - Scott Walker - Reverse Dollop 🅴
#456 - Scott Walker - Reverse Dollop
#456 - Scott Walker - Reverse Dollop
Edit - For anyone not wanting to click through and/or listen, this episode is about the Foxconn deal that gave Foxconn essentially a way to subsidize it’s other factory while doing nothing in the US . People literally showed up to work with nothing to do, all day every day.
Officially unofficial.
Regarding Foxconn, you left out the part where they seized a whole neighborhood of homes with eminent domain and kicked all the residents out in a secret deal with zero public input.
