Thursday, May 14th 2020
TSMC Building a 5nm Fab in Arizona as the U.S. Government Gets Involved
It has become a matter of national strategy (or pride) to get TSMC to build a cutting-edge silicon fabrication facility on U.S. soil. Hot on the heals of a report in which TSMC denied it has any plans to build a fab in the U.S., we're learning from a Wall Street Journal that the world's largest independent semiconductor manufacturing company, will build a facility in the U.S. after all. Apparently TSMC will build a silicon fabrication facility in the state of Arizona. The fab will manufacture 5 nm-class chips, to begin with.
TSMC got around to drawing up plans to build a stateside facility after the "involvement" of the State- and Commerce Departments of the U.S. Government. The two are involved not just in coaxing TSMC, but also in the specifics of the planning to get them to the Grand Canyon state. The Donald Trump administration made significant national policy changes with manufacturing, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic causing significant wait times in getting silicon products from Asia to the US.
Update 01:25 UTC: TSMC made its U.S. fab plans official with an announcement. Press release and additional commentary below.
This facility, which will be built in Arizona, will utilize TSMC's 5-nanometer technology for semiconductor wafer fabrication, have a 20,000 semiconductor wafer per month capacity, create over 1,600 high-tech professional jobs directly, and thousands of indirect jobs in the semiconductor ecosystem. Construction is planned to start in 2021 with production targeted to begin in 2024. TSMC's total spending on this project, including capital expenditure, will be approximately US$12 billion from 2021 to 2029. This U.S. facility not only enables us to better support our customers and partners, it also gives us more opportunities to attract global talents. This project is of critical, strategic importance to a vibrant and competitive U.S. semiconductor ecosystem that enables leading U.S. companies to fabricate their cutting-edge semiconductor products within the United States and benefit from the proximity of a world-class semiconductor foundry and ecosystem.
TSMC welcomes continued strong partnership with the U.S. administration and the State of Arizona on this project. This project will require significant capital and technology investments from TSMC. The strong investment climate in the United States, and its talented workforce make this and future investments in the U.S. attractive to TSMC. U.S. adoption of forward-looking investment policies to enable a globally competitive environment for a leading edge semiconductor technology operation in the U.S. will be crucial to the success of this project. It will also give us the confidence this and other future investments by TSMC and its supply chain companies will be successful.
In the United States, TSMC currently operates a fab in Camas, Washington and design centers in both Austin, Texas and San Jose, California. The Arizona facility would be TSMC's second manufacturing site in the United States.
We also recently covered a China Times report pointing at Intel being one of TSMC's 5 nm-class customers, possibly for its future-generation Xe HP scalar processors, which constitute high-technology. HPC chips are low-volume, high-margin products, and so the U.S. could find it in its strategic interest to see them manufactured on home soil.
Source:
Wall Street Journal
TSMC got around to drawing up plans to build a stateside facility after the "involvement" of the State- and Commerce Departments of the U.S. Government. The two are involved not just in coaxing TSMC, but also in the specifics of the planning to get them to the Grand Canyon state. The Donald Trump administration made significant national policy changes with manufacturing, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic causing significant wait times in getting silicon products from Asia to the US.
TSMC Press Release
TSMC today announced its intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the United States with the mutual understanding and commitment to support from the U.S. federal government and the State of Arizona.This facility, which will be built in Arizona, will utilize TSMC's 5-nanometer technology for semiconductor wafer fabrication, have a 20,000 semiconductor wafer per month capacity, create over 1,600 high-tech professional jobs directly, and thousands of indirect jobs in the semiconductor ecosystem. Construction is planned to start in 2021 with production targeted to begin in 2024. TSMC's total spending on this project, including capital expenditure, will be approximately US$12 billion from 2021 to 2029. This U.S. facility not only enables us to better support our customers and partners, it also gives us more opportunities to attract global talents. This project is of critical, strategic importance to a vibrant and competitive U.S. semiconductor ecosystem that enables leading U.S. companies to fabricate their cutting-edge semiconductor products within the United States and benefit from the proximity of a world-class semiconductor foundry and ecosystem.
TSMC welcomes continued strong partnership with the U.S. administration and the State of Arizona on this project. This project will require significant capital and technology investments from TSMC. The strong investment climate in the United States, and its talented workforce make this and future investments in the U.S. attractive to TSMC. U.S. adoption of forward-looking investment policies to enable a globally competitive environment for a leading edge semiconductor technology operation in the U.S. will be crucial to the success of this project. It will also give us the confidence this and other future investments by TSMC and its supply chain companies will be successful.
In the United States, TSMC currently operates a fab in Camas, Washington and design centers in both Austin, Texas and San Jose, California. The Arizona facility would be TSMC's second manufacturing site in the United States.
TechPowerUp Commentary
The key words in the above press release are "build and operate," and excludes ownership. It looks like the U.S. government has talked TSMC into limiting its financial exposure, by simply franchising itself to a U.S.-based entity that will foot the bill of this venture.We also recently covered a China Times report pointing at Intel being one of TSMC's 5 nm-class customers, possibly for its future-generation Xe HP scalar processors, which constitute high-technology. HPC chips are low-volume, high-margin products, and so the U.S. could find it in its strategic interest to see them manufactured on home soil.
58 Comments on TSMC Building a 5nm Fab in Arizona as the U.S. Government Gets Involved
I may be behind the times on this info but this is what I usually find. So this FAB plant isn't going to be used for military - they have other fab plants for that. Most countries already do that too like Russia and China where they do not use outside FAB plants to build their necessary processors for military application.
I don't know if fighting dust would be easier than fighting humidity?
It is rubbish consumer tech to them.
AFAIK. Currently Radiation hardened CPU's are made maximimum on 28nm like SONOS imho UMC made. Depending on the maker. Also x86 is rarely being used by US, i486 being the last, i386 is still used in many Russian military devices as default. They reverse engineered it. Keep in mind, writing pure ASM code to those brings performance acceptable to many tasks... and bullet proof.
Military are the last ones caring about this quarell...
Edit: but you are correct though in that this is nothing to do with military as I pointed out previously.
It is used and even in SMP, like navigation system АРБИС... you have to remember, they have the HW, like you mentioned, but rewriting software is even more pain thus there are still things made on x86 for them, prolly could be even stolen from someone. MIPS and RISC are hard to code as not many coders are coming really out of the old SPARC institute... and like ones you can trust on. Also those are way too performant and HOT to be resided mil/space grade device, and they are way to young. It will take years to have a working and tested equipment, without catching fire... but... they catch fire either way... I have no information how radiation hardened are new Russian CPU's despite being on higher tech node, but that does not guarantee anything. They boosted a lot of tech, because of tech exchange deal with China, but you have to take all the achievements with a bucket salt, no a cistern of salt and ignore all the links and media reports, because of corruption and propganda, you an only trust things you see with your own two eyes about them.
You are right about Indians, but the obvious why is the localization and they use different arsenal and components for their Su-30MKI. Who will code for those Russian CPU? Indians? How? They chose their solutions backported from earlier prolly HAL Tejas for their radar/rocket/navigation/comms etc variety. IMHO their export variants reside on x86 for sure.
Edit: if anyone cares or is interested in this sub debate, here is a good start: sdelanounas.ru/blogs/?id=93
Outside of that, we gone off topic.
The last 1875ВД2Т ie i386 is still made by Svetlana, they are supplying all the x86 Soviet clone series. They have to, as the second place where they were made is Kiev.
Never the less, militaries do not care about this TSMC move... they have their own supply chain and specific needs.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongoose-V
I imagine this is going to end up much like Foxconn's amazing Winconsin factory: www.theverge.com/2020/4/12/21217060/foxconn-wisconsin-innovation-centers-empty-buildings[citation needed]
And no, the much-debunked Bloomberg story doesn't count.ICBMs would like to have a word with you.If China does seize Taiwan, it will be because the USA abandoned Taiwan. How likely are you to want your backstop to be a nation that just threw you under the bus?
If TSMC really wanted a backstop, they'd build fabs in Europe or Africa or Australia. This move by TSMC, just like the Foxconn debacle, is merely a sop to the bullying of the current US administration.
There's a good book regarding what what uses. There's a zoo of it... It is the preference of the country/university it does. In military it is the same, who's the contractor and their solution historical base. Rarely something comes out of zero.
Space Microelectronics Volume 1: Spacecraft Classification, Failure, and Electrical Component Requirements (Artech House Space Technology and Applications)
As for shenanigans between Taiwan and China, they have been at it for so many decades, there is nothing new. Last time I checked, the states are quite happy with the way it is now. It's good for business.
www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2008/oct/06/security.china
www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/technology/concern-grows-in-us-over-chinas-drive-to-make-chips.html
They're also finding their way into Amazon and Apple cloud servers:
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/10/04/china-inserted-surveillance-microchip-servers-used-by-amazon-apple-according-report/
Counterfeit parts in general are proving fatal in aviation:
www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/unapproved-airplane-parts-creating-safety-risk-in-aviation/110281/www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/03/03/fatal-coverup-of-defective-army-helicopter-parts-alleged-in-lawsuit/They only have three (DF-5, DF-31, DF-41) that might reach Arizona but USA also has THAAD that they wouldn't hesitate to use to intercept them.
earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22autoUpdate%22%3A%5B%22autoUpdate%22%5D%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22grayscale%22%2C%22feed%22%3A%221day_m25%22%2C%22listFormat%22%3A%22default%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B4.039617826768437%2C-168.3984375%5D%2C%5B69.03714171275197%2C-3.6035156249999996%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%5B%22plates%22%5D%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3A%5B%22restrictListToMap%22%5D%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22timezone%22%3A%22utc%22%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%5B%22list%22%2C%22map%22%5D%2C%22event%22%3Anull%7DOne tsunami is enough. And THAAD won't stop the tsunami.
I have experience only about things made till 1992. with my own eyes. Including ICBM. The funny thing about those i386, nobody knows where are they used now. Why making things then? So those are rockets imho, thus I deduced most used.
It still stands as as a valid argument, that software is 75%, then the HW. The heck... Voskhod were tube based like still recently(only one remained?) Why? They worked...
During 10 years it wilk change a lot thou... the military landscape changes also.
There are tensions between many nations - South and North Koreans, Spain and UK, UK and Germany, France and Spain, France and UK, etc...
Actually, the Rus' origins are in Eastern Sweden which makes them Germans somewhat, and you might try to understand the holy union between Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Austria doesn't participate in military unions with Germany.
Yeah, a gradual change. Only reason why they did it was because they knew they were or could be left without modernish hardware so they were forced to develop newer stuff. They just tend to stick to RISC and MIPS due to open licensing and less legal troubles (they are part of WTO afterall and Russian railways was forced to cancel an agreement with INEUM for Elbrus 8S machines as they didn't hold a proper competition for said machines. But second wave they purchased the Elbrus 8s machines successfully under WTO rules). Made me laugh.
Anyway, I think we just threw this whole thread off track. But it was an interesting experience. I too respect you and sorry if I came off as strict or abrupt. Normally I am not.
I'm not familiar with civilian process compared to military but as I said and you yourself said, this definately isn't a plant for military means and thus the idea about it can be discarded. But now with falling demand of semiconductors for smartphones due to smartphone sales dropping, I don't know if many are eager to build a new fabrication plant tbh.
A republic, ... stronger together ... Why the **** are companies from the same country competing against themselfs then ???????? ....
:D :D :D Welcome to Planet Earth! It's All A Joke.