The enterprise, built by TSMC in Arizona, began pilot production back in April of this year, and by September it allegedly even mastered the production of 4nm Apple A16 processors. Representatives of the company, as Bloomberg notes, recently said at a closed event that the level of defects there is lower than at similar company facilities in Taiwan.
Image Source: TSMC
Bloomberg sources attribute a similar statement to Rick Cassidy, president of the American division of TSMC. According to him, the yield rate of usable chips at the company’s plant in Arizona is 4 percentage points higher than at similar enterprises in Taiwan. Apparently, we are talking specifically about the defect rates of 4-nm products, which the TSMC plant in Arizona will begin to produce en masse in the first half of next year.
Recall that under the 2022 Chip Act, TSMC is seeking to receive $6.6 billion in non-repayable subsidies and $5 billion in preferential loans from the US authorities, not to mention tax deductions for its capital expenditures related to the construction of enterprises in the United States . In addition to the existing plant in Arizona, the company intends to commission another plant in this state by 2027 or 2028, and increase their number to three by the end of the decade.
According to Bloomberg, the head of the American representative office of TSMC made it clear the day before that the company’s willingness to build new enterprises in the United States will largely depend on subsidies. If some semblance of a “second CHIP Act” is passed, TSMC’s available land in Arizona could accommodate a total of six facilities. TSMC CEO C.C. Wei explained last week that the first Arizona facility will begin mass production in early 2025 and will be able to provide levels of quality and consistency equal to those seen at the company’s Taiwan facilities.