Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has reached a significant milestone in its expansion into the US. Recent trial production at the company’s new Arizona facility has yielded results comparable to those of its established plants in Taiwan, according to Bloomberg, which cited a person familiar with the company who requested anonymity. This development is a positive sign for the chipmaker’s ambitious US project, which has faced delays and doubts about whether it could match the production efficiency of its Taiwanese operations.

    • AliasVortex@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      46
      ·
      1 month ago

      Arizona has fairly consistent and predictable weather, decently reliable power grids (with access to cleaner energy sources like solar, hydro, and nuclear), and is pretty seismically stable. Plus Phoenix has been trying to set itself up as a bit of a tech hub for a while now so you have access to an existing market of skilled labor plus a supply to fresh talent from ASU (and the other universities).

    • BossDj@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      45
      ·
      1 month ago

      Low taxes brought to you by a severely underfunded school system and absolute zero protections for climate or workers.

    • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 month ago

      I thought making these things requires a shitton of water. Arizona has a pretty dry climate last I checked.

      • Steve@communick.news
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        As I recall that was a significant concern early on. And part of the deal was that they recycle their water, and keep the fresh water consumption below a certain level.

        That way they don’t have to deprive the farmers growing water hungry crops in the desert with 80% of the local water supply.

    • kcuf2@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 month ago

      I think the area is seismically stable, which is a major factor for this kind of manufacturing.

  • Trilobite@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    1 month ago

    That’s good maybe tsmc will figure out you don’t need to treat your employees like slaves to get good results

    • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 month ago

      That would be in a world better than this one. Unions and a strong government that serves its people is how things like that are accomplished. Big businesses in an unregulated capitalist system will always choose profit over people.

  • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    The fact that it needs to come from a “familiar with the company” anonymous source instead of the official source gives me pause in believing this 100%. Plants like this have been known to game the system for tax purposes while not actually making anything. And like everything, time for me to find the appropriate The Dollop episode.

    The Dollop

    #456 - Scott Walker - Reverse Dollop 🅴

    #456 - Scott Walker - Reverse Dollop

    #456 - Scott Walker - Reverse Dollop

    Edit - For anyone not wanting to click through and/or listen, this episode is about the Foxconn deal that gave Foxconn essentially a way to subsidize it’s other factory while doing nothing in the US . People literally showed up to work with nothing to do, all day every day.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 month ago

      Regarding Foxconn, you left out the part where they seized a whole neighborhood of homes with eminent domain and kicked all the residents out in a secret deal with zero public input.

  • Carrolade@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    1 month ago

    Didn’t know they were starting with 4nm chips, that’s pretty impressive. I thought TSMC was keeping a more significant edge for their Taiwan fabs, but they’re only making 3nm.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 month ago

      If they’re making 3nm in Taiwan, and this unopened factory is 4nm, I imagine they already got 2nm or whatever is next already planned for Taiwan. So it could vary between 1 and 2 generations behind in that case.