Apple Inc. has promised to place orders for chips from the fabs being built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) in Arizona and expects to become the largest client of the Taiwanese contract chipmaker’s new site.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the tool-in ceremony of TSMC’s US$12 billion wafer fab in Arizona on Tuesday that the new facility is an “important milestone” in advanced manufacturing in United States.
“Apple silicon unlocks a new level of performance for our users. And soon, many of these chips can be stamped “Made in America,” Cook said in a Twitter post following the ceremony.
“The opening of TSMC’s plant in Arizona marks a new era of advanced manufacturing in the U.S. — and we are proud to become the site’s largest customer,” he said.
TSMC is thought to be the sole supplier of ICs for Apple’s iPhone production at present.
Tuesday’s tool-in ceremony marked the beginning of equipment installation at TSMC’s facility in the Phoenix area. It is expected to start production in 2024, using TSMC’s advanced 4 nanometer process.
Prior to the ceremony, TSMC announced it would increase its investment in Arizona to US$40 billion and build a second fab in Arizona using the more advance 3nm process, with production scheduled to start in 2026.
Echoing Cook, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) Chair and CEO Lisa Su said TSMC’s presence in Arizona is “extremely” critical to the global semiconductor industry as well as AMD’s expanded ecosystem of partners and clients.
“TSMC enables us to focus on what we do best: designing innovative chips that change the world,” Su said at the ceremony.
“AMD expects to be a significant user of the TSMC Arizona fabs and we look forward to building our highest performance chips in the United States.”
Qualcomm Inc. also pledged to use chips produced by TSMC’s Arizona starting from 2024, saying TSMC’s move to bring its advanced technologies to the U.S. market would benefit the American semiconductor industry and the overall economy.
“TSMC’s Arizona facility will strengthen the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in the U.S., which will enable us to serve our U.S. customers better,” said Roawen Chen, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and chief supply chain & operations officer.
“As a longtime customer of TSMC, we are pleased to start leveraging the Arizona facility to manufacture our leading-edge products when production begins in 2024,” Chen said.
Qualcomm Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel