On March 20, according to Taiwanese media reports, TSMC's new plant in Arizona is expected to begin mass production of a new generation 4 nm process in 2024, and Qualcomm promised to place the first batch of orders.

According to reports, TSMC announced the construction of a chip factory in Arizona, USA on May 15, 2020. Construction of the plant began in June 2021, peaked in the summer of 2022, and plans to begin mass production of 4 nm chips in 2024 instead of the 5 nm chips previously planned, with a planned monthly production capacity of 20,000 wafers.

However, due to delays in engineering and equipment installation, shortage of human resources, and tight costs, the plant is unlikely to be fully operational in 2024 and may be delayed until 2025.

TSMC originally planned to build only one chip factory in the US, but later it increased to two. On December 6, 2022, the company announced plans to build a second chip factory in Arizona, which plans to begin production of 3nm process technology in 2026.

In addition to the first chip factory announced in 2020, TSMC's investment in two fabs in Arizona will be close to $40 billion, and production capacity will increase to 600,000 wafers per year.

TSMC's main customers Apple, Nvidia, and AMD said they expect their chips to be manufactured at a new plant in Arizona.

TSMC originally expected the final cost of chips produced in the US to be only 50% higher, but Zhang Zhongmou, the company's founder, said last week that he underestimated the cost of producing chips in the US. In fact, the cost was not only increased by 50%, but by 100%. In other words, the cost is twice that of local production, which will seriously affect its competitiveness in the market.