SANTA CLARA, California, April 22 (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co plans to open a chip packaging plant in Arizona by 2029, an executive told Reuters.
Modern artificial intelligence chips, such as those made by Nvidia, are not single chips but several chips glued together with advanced packaging technologies, a step that has become a supply bottleneck for Nvidia and others. In a January earnings call, TSMC said it was applying for permits to begin construction of its first advanced packaging plant in an existing Arizona facility, but did not give a timeline for when it will come online.
At a conference in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday, TSMC executives said construction has begun.
"We are aggressively expanding our own capability within the Arizona facility," Kevin Zhang, deputy co-chief operations officer and senior vice president, said on Tuesday ahead of the conference. "We are going to build a CoWoS capability and 3D-IC capability there before 2029, so that's still our goal," Zhang said, referring to two of TSMC's packaging technologies that are in high demand.
Companies such as Apple and Nvidia already source chips from TSMC's Arizona factory, but many of those chips must go back to Taiwan for packaging.
Amkor Technology last year said it was working with Apple and Nvidia to build a packaging factory in Arizona by mid-2027 and start production by early 2028, earlier than TSMC's timeline. Amkor and TSMC in 2024 said they would work together to bring several of TSMC's advanced packaging technologies to Arizona, but the two companies have not disclosed details.
Zhang said Amkor and TSMC's technology discussions remain ongoing.
"We are partnering with them to see what kind of technology capability they can offer to our customers in order to accelerate some of the products to be manufactured in the U.S.," Zhang said. "There are still some moving parts. I would say we are definitely looking at all possibilities to have a very diverse manufacturing footprint."
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis and Max Cherney in Santa Clara, California and Wee-Yee Lee in Taipei; Editing by Rod Nickel)
