News
The funding will allow the USA to produce 20% of the world’s leading semiconductors by 2030
The US government has announced that it has signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms to award Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) a subsidy of $6.6 billion for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona.
The funding, which has been made possible through The CHIPS and Science Act, will see TSMC build its third fabrication plant in Arizona, taking TSMC’s total investment in the US to $65 billion. Two of the plants are already under construction, with one nearing completion and aiming to begin production next year. Combined, the three plants are expected to create “6,000 direct high-tech, high-wage jobs”, with the wider construction creating an additional 20,000 jobs.
The funding includes $50 million that will go towards the training and development a local workforce, “so workers don’t have to leave their hometowns to find good-paying jobs in innovative industries.”
Once all three fabs are in action, they will manufacture millions of leading-edge chips for use in 5G and eventually 6G smartphones, autonomous vehicles, and AI data centre servers.
“The CHIPS and Science Act provides TSMC the opportunity to make this unprecedented investment and to offer our foundry service of the most advanced manufacturing technologies in the United States,” said TSMC Chairman Dr. Mark Liu in a company press release.
Despite chips being invented in America, the country has gone from producing 40% of the world’s chips to just 10%, which the US government said in a statement makes the country exposed to “significant economic and national security vulnerabilities”.
“These are the chips that underpin all artificial intelligence, and they are the chips that are necessary components for the technologies that we need to underpin our economy, but frankly, a 21st century military and national security apparatus,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a verbal statement.
Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter
Also in the news:
Digi Spain sells 6m FTTH accesses to Onivia
Vodafone’s 5G standalone network now connects around half the German population
Broadband poles no problem for Brits says new study
