TSMC’s Arizona chip plant, which will include chips for older Apple devices, has been officially delayed by the company. Production had been scheduled to begin in late 2024 and has been pushed back to early 2025.
The chipmaker had previously acknowledged that construction work had fallen well behind schedule, but had said at the time that this “[did] not necessarily mean” that initial chip production would be delayed …
TSMC originally announced plans to build one or more chip plants in Arizona in 2020, which it claimed would create 1,600 US jobs and create a local supply chain as well.
The company sought substantial subsidies from the US government in order to proceed. Apple supported this bid, lobbying on TSMC’s behalf through the CHIPS Act, a $50B program to promote chip fabrication within the US.
As of late June, TSMC acknowledged that construction was significantly behind schedule. The original plan was for chip fabrication to come online for initial test production around September of this year. The current timeline has the initial test production runs occurring next February or March.
TSMC has stated that this didn’t necessarily mean that the start of customer chip production would be delayed, as there was always contingency time in the plan. Nikkei has reported that company chairman Mark Liu has acknowledged that the delay will affect production plans.
TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said the world’s biggest contract chipmaker is entering a critical phase of handling and installing some of the “most advanced equipment” at the plant.
Construction is currently well underway, albeit at the cost of TSMC demanding twice the subsidy that was initially offered and bringing in hundreds of workers from Taiwan. There have also been reports of serious safety issues at the plant, which have been only partly denied by TSMC.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.