- Apple Inc AAPL CEO Tim Cook eyed building chips in the U.S. for the first time in nearly a decade to reduce dependence on international territories.
- Cook said Apple would expand its relationship with crucial supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd TSM at a TSMC facility under construction in Phoenix in the presence of President Joe Biden and executives from chip companies, Bloomberg reports.
- Cook voiced his plans to deepen relations with its existing supplier when the U.S. factory opens in 2024 and as TSMC forms new and deeper roots in America.
- TSMC’s Phoenix plant will build Apple silicon chips in most of its devices, Cook said.
- “Thanks to the hard work of so many people, these chips can be proudly stamped ‘Made in America,'” he said.
- Initially, the plant will only build chips in small quantities for Apple and may use technology inferior to what the company will need for its flagship devices in 2024.
- TSMC explored a second semiconductor factory in Arizona and increased its investment to $40 billion.
- The second factory will make chips with 3-nm, and TSMC’s total investment in Arizona will expand to $40 billion, up from its $12 billion investment for its first factory in Arizona.
- The U.S.’s landmark $52 billion federal program to boost domestic chipmaking was a powerful trigger for TSMC.
- Price Action: TSM shares traded lower by 1.17% at $78.63 in the premarket on the last check Wednesday.