TSMC Arizona Packaging Move
- TSMC plans to open a chip‑packaging plant in Arizona by 2029, moving advanced packaging to the U.S. market. - The company also delayed use of ASML’s high‑NA EUV machines through 2029 while debuting A13 technology at a symposium. - TSMC’s choices highlight cost‑conscious scaling of AI hardware and potential impacts on packaging capacity and timelines. ( )
TSMC said it plans to open an advanced chip-packaging plant in Arizona by 2029, bringing a key step in artificial-intelligence chip production closer to U.S. customers. (usnews.com) Deputy co-chief operations officer Kevin Zhang said construction has begun and that the site will add CoWoS and 3D-IC packaging before 2029. Those are the methods TSMC uses to combine several pieces of silicon into one high-performance processor package. (usnews.com) Modern Nvidia-style AI chips are often not one chip but multiple chiplets linked and wrapped together at the packaging stage, and that step has been a supply bottleneck. TSMC said in January it was seeking permits for its first Arizona advanced-packaging plant, but it did not give an opening date until this week. (usnews.com) The Arizona move would reduce one of the biggest gaps in TSMC’s U.S. footprint. Apple and Nvidia already source chips from TSMC’s Arizona fab, but many of those chips still have to be sent back to Taiwan for packaging. (usnews.com) TSMC is making the same cost argument on the factory floor. Zhang told reporters the company has no current plans to use ASML’s high-numerical-aperture extreme ultraviolet machines through 2029 because the tools cost more than €350 million, or about $410 million, each. (bloomberg.com) Instead, TSMC used its North America Technology Symposium on April 22 in Santa Clara to argue it can keep shrinking chips with existing equipment. The company introduced its A13 process, said it will enter production in 2029, and said the node is a direct shrink of A14 with 6% area savings and backward-compatible design rules. (businesswire.com) TSMC also outlined a lower-cost 2-nanometer option called N2U for 2028 production. The company said N2U is aimed at AI, high-performance computing and mobile designs that want some speed or power gains without moving to a more expensive platform. (businesswire.com) Amkor Technology is on a faster Arizona timetable. Reuters reported that Amkor said last year it was working with Apple and Nvidia on a packaging plant in Arizona targeted for mid-2027 construction completion and early 2028 production, while TSMC said its talks with Amkor on which technologies to offer are still ongoing. (usnews.com) The result is a U.S. chip buildout that is adding more of the supply chain, but on staggered dates. By 2029, TSMC says Arizona should have both wafer fabrication and advanced packaging, even as the company skips ASML’s newest lithography tools for that same stretch. (usnews.com)
