Apple Builds Out US Chip Supply Chain

TSMC's total investment in Arizona is set to exceed $65 billion, making it the largest foreign direct investment in a greenfield project in U.S. history. This massive undertaking is backed by up to $6.6 billion in direct funding and $5 billion in loans from the CHIPS and Science Act. The project includes multiple fabrication plants, with the first fab already producing chips on its 4nm process node since late 2024. A second fab, set to produce more advanced 3nm chips, has had its production timeline accelerated to the second half of 2027 due to strong customer demand. A third fab targeting 2nm technology is planned to be operational by the end of the decade. Apple is the anchor customer, but the ecosystem extends far beyond fabrication. In Texas, GlobalWafers produces the 300mm silicon wafers, which are then shipped to the Arizona fabs. Nearby, Amkor Technology, with investment from Apple, is building two advanced packaging facilities, with the first slated to open in 2027. This move into domestic advanced packaging is critical for high-performance computing. It enables heterogeneous integration, where multiple smaller chips or "chiplets" are combined into a single, more powerful and efficient package. This technique is essential for the complex systems used in AI, data centers, and autonomous vehicles. The initiative is a direct result of policies like the CHIPS Act, aimed at reversing the decline of U.S. global semiconductor manufacturing capacity from 37% in 1990 to around 12% in recent years. Since the act's introduction, over $210 billion in private semiconductor investments have been announced across the country. Foxconn's role in this US expansion is focused on assembly rather than fabrication. The company is partnering with Apple at a facility in Houston, Texas, to produce AI servers and is also adding assembly lines for the Mac mini. [25, 27, 2