Washington — President Trump announced Monday that a leading Taiwanese semiconductor chip company plans to invest $100 billion in new manufacturing plants in the U.S.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of semiconductor chips, and plans to make the major investment over the next several years. Mr. Trump made the announcement in the White House Roosevelt Room alongside the company’s CEO, C.C. Wei.
“Today, Taiwan Semiconductor is announcing that they will be investing at least $100 billion in new capital in the United States over the next short period of time to build state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facilities,” Mr. Trump said. “I think mostly it’s going to be in Arizona which is what I understand, which is a great state. I like it because I won it.”
The president called TSMC the “most powerful company in the world,” and said the economic development announcement is a “matter of economic security” and a “matter of national security for us.”
The Wall Street Journal was first to report the investment pledge. TSMC was promised $6.6 billion in funding under the Biden-era CHIPS and SCIENCE Act of 2022, and announced plans for its first U.S. plant in Arizona.
The anticipated announcement comes amid Mr. Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on semiconductor chip imports, which TSMC could avoid by manufacturing the chips in the U.S. The president has also floated expedited permits for companies that invest at least $1 billion in the U.S. Mr. Trump noted Monday that if Wei’s company made the chips in Taiwan and exported them to the U.S., they’d face 25% tariffs.
Speaking at the White House, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick credited the tariffs with the TSMC announcement.
“Under the Biden administration, TSMC received a $6 billion grant, and that encouraged them to build $65 billion. So America gave TSMC 10% of the money to build here. And now you’re seeing the power of Donald Trump’s presidency,” Lutnick said. “TSMC, the greatest manufacturer of chips in the world, is coming to America with a hundred-billion-dollar investment, and of course that is backed by the fact that they can come here because they can avoid paying tariffs.”
Semiconductor chips are small but critical components for today’s technology, with small pieces of silicone that contain electronic circuits. Semiconductor chips are found in everything from iPhones to cars, and demand has boomed in recent years thanks to the explosion in artificial intelligence, which requires an enormous amount of computing power.
“Semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st century economy,” Mr. Trump said Monday. “And really, without the semiconductors, there is no economy, powering everything from AI to automobiles to advanced manufacturing.”
The vast majority of semiconductor chips are manufactured in Asian countries, with Taiwan at the top, and the Trump administration is hoping to draw more manufacturing to the U.S. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have viewed increasing U.S. chip manufacturing a matter of national security.
“We must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here in American factories with American skill and American labor,” Mr. Trump said. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing. As you know, Taiwan pretty much has a monopoly on that market.”