TSMC bets on US packaging

TSMC plans to open an advanced chip‑packaging plant in Arizona by 2029 to ease a bottleneck in packaging for AI processors. (money.usnews.com) Company executives said construction has already begun at an existing Arizona site and that TSMC aims to bring CoWoS and 3D‑IC packaging capabilities online before 2029, Deputy COO Kevin Zhang said on April 22, 2026. (money.usnews.com) TSMC noted that some chips made at its Arizona wafer fab for customers including Apple and Nvidia are currently sent back to Taiwan for packaging, prompting the push to localize the step. (money.usnews.com) The announcement follows TSMC’s April 16, 2026 quarterly report: first‑quarter net profit rose about 58% year‑over‑year to roughly NT$572.5 billion (about $18.2 billion) on NT$1.134 trillion in revenue. (money.usnews.com) Markets have rotated toward AI trades after a string of strong prints from TSMC and Nvidia, and industry observers point to rising memory and HBM demand as another signal of tightening AI‑server supply. (finance.yahoo.com) Advanced packaging — TSMC’s CoWoS (chip‑on‑wafer‑on‑substrate) and 3D‑IC stacking — physically integrates multiple dies or memory next to or on top of processors to boost bandwidth and lower power, a step TSMC says is now central to AI accelerator production. (3dfabric.tsmc.com) Other U.S. packaging projects are moving in parallel: Amkor broke ground on a Peoria, Arizona advanced‑packaging campus in 2025 and plans first‑phase completion by mid‑2027 with production slated for early 2028. (amkor.com) TSMC’s 2029 target makes packaging a multiyear industrial bet onshore; the next concrete milestones to watch are construction progress and customer qualification timelines between now and 2029. (money.usnews.com)