TSMC Expands in Arizona
- TSMC plans to open a chip-packaging plant in Arizona by 2029 to extend its U.S. manufacturing footprint. - Many wafers currently made in Arizona are sent back to Taiwan for packaging, affecting customers like Apple and Nvidia. - TSMC also announced a 2029 roadmap including A12/A13 nodes and says it will delay ASML's high-NA lithography investment for now (reuters.com) (tomshardware.com).
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to open a chip-packaging plant in Arizona by 2029, extending its U.S. operation beyond wafer production. (reuters.com) Packaging is the step after a chip is made on a silicon wafer: the wafer is cut into individual chips, then those chips are connected, protected, and prepared to go into servers, phones, and other devices. TSMC executive Kevin Zhang said many wafers now made in Arizona are still shipped back to Taiwan for that final step. (reuters.com) That shipping loop affects some of TSMC’s biggest customers, including Apple and Nvidia, because the Arizona site can make chips but cannot yet finish all of them locally. Reuters reported the new packaging plant is scheduled to open in 2029. (reuters.com) TSMC’s Arizona buildout has expanded quickly since 2020. The company said in March 2025 it would raise its total planned U.S. investment to $165 billion, adding three new fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research-and-development center. (tsmc.com) On TSMC’s Arizona site page, the company says its first fab started high-volume production on the N4 process in the fourth quarter of 2024. It says a second fab is targeting N3 volume production in the second half of 2027, while a third fab is slated for N2 and A16 production by the end of the decade. (tsmc.com) TSMC paired the Arizona packaging news with a longer technology roadmap at its April 22, 2026 North America Technology Symposium in Santa Clara. The company said it plans an N2U process in 2028 and A12 and A13 nodes in 2029. (tomshardware.com) Those names describe the manufacturing recipes TSMC uses to print ever-smaller circuits onto silicon. Tom’s Hardware reported TSMC also pushed A16 to 2027 and said its A13 generation is designed to move ahead without relying on ASML’s newer high-numerical-aperture lithography machines. (tomshardware.com) Reuters reported TSMC is delaying investment in ASML’s high-NA tools for now because of cost, even as it continues to show smaller-node plans through 2029. That leaves Arizona doing more of the chip supply chain in the United States, but still on a timeline that stretches several years. (reuters.com 1) (reuters.com 2)
