Back in April, the TSMC plant under construction in Arizona began pilot production of 4-nm products, but so far there has been no official information about the degree of progress in this area. The initiative was taken by the Bloomberg agency, which, citing informed sources, announced that the American enterprise TSMC had achieved comparable yield indicators with similar Taiwanese enterprises.
Image Source: TSMC
TSMC representatives responded to Bloomberg’s request with a general phrase that the project in Arizona is being implemented in accordance with the previously planned plan and is showing good progress. The yield level of suitable products is the most important quality indicator in lithographic production, which determines the economic efficiency of production. It determines which part of the chips produced from one silicon wafer is suitable for further use and does not contain defects.
Investors are focused on TSMC’s ability to maintain profit margins of 53% or higher over the long term, which have not fallen below 36% over the past four years. TSMC’s Arizona project, which involves the construction of three chip contract manufacturing plants, was initially hit by delays due to a lack of skilled labor and differences in the corporate culture of Taiwan and the United States. The first plant in Arizona was already supposed to begin mass production this year, but now this will not happen until next year. The US authorities allocated the company $6.6 billion in subsidies and $5 billion in the form of soft loans for the implementation of the project to build three enterprises in Arizona, and the total costs of the manufacturer could ultimately reach $65 billion.