<\/p>\n
TSMC is expanding its giant footprint at the base of the Foothills.<\/p>\n
(Tom Scanlon\/Staff)<\/p>\n
A current expansion shape-shifting the land outside Anthem surely would impress Julius Caesar, who was something of a write-as-you-fight conqueror.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perhaps predicting modern-day press conferences, Caesar fired off a series of wartime bulletins to his \u201cinvestors\u201d in Rome.<\/p>\n
Later collected as \u201cThe Gallic Wars,\u201d the Roman general and pummeling politician gave updates and justified his battle with lands to the north. Ironically enough, he protested the expansion plans of the Helvetii, \u201cmen fond of war.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A few key planners, he reflected with admiration, \u201cdetermined to provide such things as were necessary for their expedition \u2013 to buy up as great a number as possible of beasts of burden and wagons \u2026 and to establish peace and friendship with the neighboring states. They reckoned that a term of two years would be sufficient for them to execute their designs \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, they had the gall (so to speak) to lay out a blueprint for a globe-shifting march.<\/p>\n
Twenty-three centuries later, planning on that scale is underway on the land south of Anthem, where peaceful-but-indefatigable TSMC is storming ahead with a Valley-shifting march.<\/p>\n
Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of TSMC\u2019s $165 billion expansion here, \u201cflipping\u201d hundreds of acres of scrubby desert \u2013 acquired via state land auctions \u2013 into booming chip factories.<\/p>\n
As the old commercial taglines used to say: \u201cBut wait, there\u2019s more \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
At the June 11 North Gateway Village meeting, TSMC\u2019s expansion was referred to as \u201cour little $165 billion unicorn up the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Li, an attorney with TSMC who is also a member of the North Gateway Village Planning Committee, hinted there was more to come.<\/p>\n
He was deliberately vague, not wanting to steal the Helvetti-esque thunder of his boss, TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On July 16, barely a month after the North Gateway meeting, Wei was the star of TSMC\u2019s eagerly-awaited second-quarter earnings call. He shared with investors and journalists TSMC\u2019s powerhouse second-quarter earnings \u2013 and announced an additional $100 billion investment in Arizona.<\/p>\n
Raising the stakes by 60%, this brings the Taiwan-founded chipmaker’s total Arizona investment to $265 billion.<\/p>\n
Caesar would nod in approval at Wei\u2019s plan: \u201cTo address the structural increase in the overall long-term semiconductor market demand profile, TSMC collaborates closely with our customers and our customers\u2019 customers to plan our capacity. Given the fundamental complexity of leading-edge technologies and the design-in and lead time involved, we also have a very good idea of their multi-year product roadmap and production plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed the long-term technologies and product development, stressing \u201ca disciplined capacity planning system to assess the market demand \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Giving context to the $100 billion additional investment, Wei emphasized \u201cstrong collaboration and support from our leading U.S. customers and the U.S. federal, state and city governments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wei noted the expansion here anchors TSMC\u2019s \u201cmulti-year product roadmap \u2026 it takes more than five years to develop the technology and product, prepare the capacity, and ramp it up to high-volume production<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe this investment will help to further foster the development of the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem, strengthen the supply chain, and support an increasing number of high-tech, high-paying jobs in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Paul Li, an attorney with TSMC, hinted at more big things to come during a recent public presentation.<\/p>\n
(Tom Scanlon\/Staff)<\/p>\n
TSMC Phoenix numbers<\/p>\n
Li provided highlights of the giant\u2019s journey, thus far:<\/p>\n
\u2022TSMC currently employs 3,500 people, forecasted to grow to 6,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022TSMC Phoenix includes six semiconductor wafer fabs, two advanced packaging facilities and research and development facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022The first fab, producing M4 chips, has been in full production since the end of 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022Production of the second fab, using N3 technology, started last year.<\/p>\n
\u2022The third fab, using N5 technology, is expected to begin production by 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wei told an international audience TSMC will build four more fabs here, with the additional $100 billion investment.<\/p>\n
That might sound staggering, but TSMC\u2019s sales in 2025 clocked in around $122 billion. \u201cWe now expect our full-year 2026 revenue growth to be slightly above 40% year over year,\u201d Wei said during the earnings call.<\/p>\n
TSMC is perhaps echoing Caesar\u2019s description of an expansion-minded tribe seeking \u201cpeace and friendship with the neighboring states.\u201d<\/p>\n
Li recently tipped his cap to city of Phoenix assistance in rezoning approval for 900 acres TSMC purchased early this year.<\/p>\n
The Taiwan-Arizona company will need more local cooperation if TSMC is to continue with its forward charge \u2013 as when a Gallic leader \u201cprevails upon the Sequani to allow the Helvetii to march through their territories \u2026 without mischief and outrage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TSMC is expanding its giant footprint at the base of the Foothills. (Tom Scanlon\/Staff) A current expansion shape-shifting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":982284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,394275,394274,1589,1959,30723,74751,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-982283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-north-gateway-village-planning-committee","tag-paul-li","tag-phoenix","tag-semiconductor","tag-taiwan","tag-tsmc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117042897729776131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}