TSMC starts construction of its U.S. based fab in Phoenix; plant to spit out 5nm chips in 2024

TSMC, which earlier this year was producing 5nm chips including Apple's A14 Bionic and its powerful M1, has started construction on its $12 billion facility in Arizona. The U.S. factory will start turning out 5nm chips in 2024, although by then the company could be pushing out even more advanced  2nm chips in Taiwan. A report last month said that the U.S. has asked TSMC to build as many as six fabs in the state over a time period said to be 10-15 years.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that while speaking at the foundry's annual tech presentation to clients and investors (held online for the second straight year due to the pandemic), TSMC CEO C.C. Wei confirmed that the company is on track to meet the aforementioned goals in three years' time.

The U.S. is getting close to putting a bill on President Biden's desk that would allow the government to give chipmakers as much as $54 billion in subsidies to help boost the chip industry in the states. Companies like Intel (U.S.), TSMC (Taiwan), Samsung (South Korea), and others will be competing for some of that cash. Like the Trump administration before it, the Biden administration seeks to make the U.S. self-sufficient in terms of advanced chip production by  building fabs in the states.

Currently the chip industry has been experiencing a shortage that has mostly affected the automobile companies although some consumer electronics firms have been impacted as well. Once the shortage is resolved, we can look forward to even more powerful and energy-efficient chips starting in the second half of 2022 when TSMC starts volume production of 3nm SoCs. Compared to current 5nm chips, performance of these 3nm components will rise 10% to 15% while saving energy consumption by 20% to 25%.

One report claims that Apple has already reserved all of the initial 3nm chips that TSMC will produce. The A15 Bionic and M2 chips will be used to power the iPhone, iPad and the Mac. TSMC is believed to have already started production of Apple's A15 Bionic using TSMC's N5P process node, and production of the M2 SoC supposedly started in April.