New York CNN —
Chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plans to invest at least $100 billion to grow its US manufacturing operations, President Donald Trump announced from the White House on Monday alongside the firm’s CEO C.C. Wei, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks.
The announcement comes amid a larger push by Trump to encourage investments in American manufacturing.
The investment will contribute to building three advanced chipmaking fabrication plants — in addition to one the company already has running in the state and two others in the works in Arizona — and is expected to create tens of thousands of jobs.
As part of the announcement, TSMC will also build two advanced packaging facilities, where smaller chips are assembled into more powerful systems, and a research and development center, the company confirmed Monday.
The announcement means TSMC will have a total of six US fabrication plants, plus the additional facilities. Previously, Trump had indicated during Monday’s event that there would be five fabrication plants.
Monday’s announcement brings TSMC’s US investments to around $165 billion, Trump said.
“This is a tremendous move by the most powerful company in the world. It’s a matter of economic security, it’s also a matter of national security for us,” Trump said, adding that it would help TSMC diversify away from chipmaking in Taiwan.
The White House had teased the announcement earlier Monday.
TSMC is the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer. Its chips power countless tech products, from iPhones and AI systems to cars and medical devices. The announcement comes as the United States seeks to gain a larger foothold in the global chipmaking industry and stay ahead of China in the AI race.
Trump claimed that the TSMC investment and “a couple of others that we’re doing” could bring the United States to 40% of the global chipmaking market, although such an ambitious goal would almost certainly take years to reach.
“We’re going to produce many chips to support AI progress and to support smartphones progress,” Wei said during the event Monday. Wei also thanked TSMC customers such as Apple, Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm.
“TSMC’s new fabs will be the foundational pillar of a new technology supply chain centered in the United States,” an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement following the announcement, adding the company “will fully utilize TSMC’s global manufacturing network to enhance our supply agility and resilience.”
TSMC is just the latest tech company promising to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into the United States.
Apple said last week it would invest $500 billion to expand facilities, manufacturing and projects across the United States over the next four years. The announcement appeared to be aimed at helping the company avoid new tariffs on goods imported from China, although some of the investment efforts were likely already underway.
Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank also announced in January that they would team up to create a new company, called Stargate, to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Together, the companies plan to invest $500 billion into the project in the coming years.
TSMC initially announced a $12 billion investment to build an advanced semiconductor factory in Arizona in 2020, amid concerns from the first Trump administration that America’s reliance on chipmakers in Asia had become a national security threat.
But TSMC’s US efforts received a big boost under President Joe Biden, due to his CHIPS and Science Act, which helped fund investments in American chipmaking. During Biden’s term, the company said it would build two additional Arizona plants and increase its investment in the state to $65 billion, although at least one of those new facilities has faced delays. Apple said last month that it had started to receive advanced chips from TSMC’s first Arizona plant.
New presidents and presidents-elect have often held joint announcements with companies about massive US investments to promote American manufacturing. But their track record for success is mixed.
Trump and Foxconn announced in 2017 a $10 billion electronics factory in Wisconsin that was expected to create 13,000 jobs. But the company eventually abandoned most of its plans for the facility and the high-tech products it was supposed to build. The company in 2021 said it would invest just $672 million in a revised deal that would create fewer than 1,500 jobs.
Foxconn said it has invested $1 billion in the state, however, and still has a major manufacturing site for data servers with more than 1,000 employees. But the facility Trump announced has become a Microsoft data hub that aims to train employees and manufacturers on how to best use artificial intelligence.
–CNN’s Alayna Treene contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments and context.
