Half a year after the announcement that it would build a semiconductor production facility for silicon chips in Arizona, USA, TSMC’s board of directors has approved the first investments. Around 3.5 billion US dollars, the equivalent of almost 3 billion euros, should flow into the start of construction next year.

TSMC made the decision in the As part of a short communication. However, it will not stay with the costs: When the announcement in May 2020 the company already stated that the project would be up to 2029 Expected to cost 12 billion US dollars, converted well 10 Billion euro. The amount of US government and Arizona state subsidies is not known.

5 nm chips from 2024 TSMC forecasts the start of production in the year 2024 – initially with structures of 5 nanometers including extreme ultraviolet exposure technology (EUV). 5 nm chips are already rolling off the assembly line in Taiwan, such as Apple’s mobile processors A 14 for the iPhone 12 and M1 for MacBooks. With a monthly wafer volume of around 20. 000 the Arizona Fab is one of the smaller representatives of modern production facilities. In Asia TSMC only builds “Gigafabs” with a monthly wafer volume of 100. 000 and more.

In view of the production technology and the volume from 2024, the TSMC-Fab in the USA will be of particular interest for the semiconductor requirements of the military and aerospace.

In the board meeting, TSMC has meanwhile made further investments in the amount of 15, 1 billion US dollars (12, 8 billion euros). The money goes, among other things, to the construction of new production facilities, the expansion of existing ones, the modernization of packaging systems, research and the purchase of new equipment. (mma)