Officials from the US state of Arizona and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) discuss increasing its advanced chip packaging capacity by opening a facility in the US.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D) is in Taiwan Tuesday (September 19) as part of a broader US delegation visiting the island nation to discuss with officials and firms focused on Taiwan's key role in the semiconductor supply chain, Bloomberg reported.
In addition, US Undersecretary of Commerce Laurie Locascio said Washington is talking with TSMC about research and development for the first time in an effort to bring more of the world's biggest contract chipmaker's technology to the US.
Chip Packaging a Bottleneck to Settle, Says TSMC Chair
Packaging has become a bottleneck in the fabrication of the most in-demand silicon of today, especially for Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators, which TSMC makes.
In response, TSMC chairman Mark Liu told Semicon earlier this month that the company has committed to expand its packaging capacity in Taiwan, but expected that supplies to tighten for another 18 months. Cadence Design Systems CEO Anirudh Devgan also told the same event that packaging would be the key battleground for nations seeking to establish tech leadership, something Taiwan is attempting to maintain in its conflict against China.
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TSMC Proposes to Increase, and Develop Chip Packaging Facility in AZ
To date, TSMC's commitment to Arizona now spans two fabs and $40 billion in investment. Adding advanced packaging to its current commitments would increase the firm's chipmaking capability outside Taiwan.
Last December, TSMC had already said it would offer more advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips from its Arizona plant at the request of Apple, which is one of its biggest customers.
Hobbs added that her state and TSMC are "working through some bugs," but was "very impressed" by the speed of developments in their discussions that the project to develop TSMC's Arizona plant was reported to be continuing as scheduled. TSMC executives added in its latest earnings call that the operation of the first Arizona plant would be delayed to 2025 due to a lack of skilled labor, among other things.
Hobbs also said that over 30 supply chain companies have come to Arizona in the past year, adding that the state has a "highly skilled workforce" that has been continuing to grow.
She further added that Taiwan should bring more workers stateside to work side by side with Arizonans.
In response, TSMC said in a statement it was "honored" to host Hobbs at its headquarters where executives held "productive discussions" with her.
"We believe the dialogues that we held during this visit will help us to work together even more closely in the future," the company added.
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