WASHINGTON (AP) — Chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to invest $100 billion in the United States, President Donald Trump said Monday, on top of $65 billion in investments the company had previously announced.
TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer, produces chips for companies including Apple, Intel and Nvidia. The company had already begun constructing three plants in Arizona after the Biden administration offered billions in subsidies. Its first factory in Arizona has started mass production of its 4-nanometer chips.
Trump, who appeared with TSMC’s chief executive officer C. C. Wei at the White House, called it a “tremendous move” and “a matter of economic security.”
“Semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st century economy. And really, without the semiconductors, there is no economy,” the president said. “Powering everything from AI to automobiles to advanced manufacturing, we must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here in American factories with American skill and American labor.”
Wei said the investment will be for three more chip manufacturing plants, along with two packaging facilities, in Arizona.
The $165 billion investment “is going to create thousands of high-paying jobs,” Wei said.
Former President Joe Biden in 2022 signed a sweeping $280 billion law, the CHIPS and Science Act, to try to reinvigorate chip manufacturing in the U.S., especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, chip factories, especially those overseas making the majority of processors, shut down. It had a ripple effect that led to wider problems, such as automobile factory assembly lines shutting down and fueled inflation.
Trump has criticized the law and taken a different approach, instead threatening to impose high tariffs on imported chips to bring chip manufacturing back to the U.S.
Trump also has said companies like TSMC do not need federal tax incentives.
At the Commerce Department, 40 people who worked on the implementation of the Chips Act were fired Monday as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping moves to cut the size of the federal workforce, according to a person familiar with the move who was not authorized to speak publicly.
When asked if the new investment could minimize impact on the U.S. should China either isolate or seize Taiwan, Trump said he couldn’t say “minimize” because “that would be a catastrophic event obviously.”
Taiwan is an island that broke away from mainland China in 1949 following a civil war. Beijing claims sovereignty over the island and has ratcheted up military and diplomatic pressure on its leaders.
“It will at least give us a position where we have, in this very, very important business, we would have a very big part of it in the United States,” Trump said of the chip manufacturing.
He did not say if the investment would provide security for the self-governed island that Beijing considers to be part of Chinese territory.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, the island’s de-facto embassy in the United States, said investments by Taiwanese businesses in the U.S. have exceeded 40 percent of the island’s total foreign investments and that the Taiwanese government is “glad” to see Taiwanese businesses to expand investments in the U.S. and to deep cooperation on supply chain between the two sides.
“It also brings the economic and trade relations closer,” the office said.
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at German Marshall Fund of the U.S., said Taipei is hoping the increased investment pledge will help keep the U.S.-Taiwan relationship strong. “Taiwan is evidently stepping up in a way that supports and advanced President Trump’s priorities,” she said. “The US will benefit greatly from TSMC’s investment.”
Trump has yet to indicate his stance on U.S. support for Taiwan’s security since he took office, and he has said Taiwan should pay the U.S. for its military defense.
Trump has hosted multiple business leaders at the White House since he took office in January to tout a series of investments that aim to demonstrate his leadership is a boon for the U.S. economy. He’s also pointed to the tariff threats as prodding the investments.
“It’s the incentive we’ve created. Or the negative incentive,” Trump said.
In January, he appeared with the heads of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank at the White House as they announced plans for a new partnership to invest up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence. He also announced in January a $20 billion investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates to build data centers tied to AI.
Last week, after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Trump at the White House, the company announced plans to invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, including plans for a new server factory in Texas. Trump said after their meeting that Cook promised him Apple’s manufacturing would shift from Mexico to the U.S.
“I don’t have time to do all of these announcements,” Trump joked Monday as he listed some of the other investments.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the planned announcement Monday.
Story by Didi Tang and Michelle L. Price, Associated Press. Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Chris Megerian contributed to this report. Price reported from New York.
