en.Wedoany.com Reported - Kevin Zhang, Senior Vice President of Global Business and Co-COO of TSMC, stated at an industry conference in Santa Clara, California, on April 22 that TSMC plans to launch a chip packaging plant in Arizona, USA, by 2029. Zhang explicitly stated at the conference: "We are actively expanding our capabilities within our Arizona site. We plan to establish CoWoS and 3D-IC capabilities there by 2029, and this remains our goal." Zhang also confirmed that related construction work has already begun.
CoWoS and 3D-IC are two of TSMC's highly sought-after advanced packaging technologies. Modern artificial intelligence chips are no longer single chips but are integrated by stacking multiple compute dies and high-bandwidth memory through advanced packaging technologies. The advanced packaging stage has become a bottleneck in the supply chain for AI chip manufacturers like Nvidia. Currently, customers such as Apple and Nvidia have begun procuring chips from TSMC's Arizona wafer fab, but most of these chips still need to be shipped back to Taiwan for packaging. The establishment of local advanced packaging capacity in the U.S. would help shorten delivery cycles and enhance the completeness of the local supply chain.
TSMC's deployment in Arizona is extending from a single wafer fab to a complete supply chain. TSMC's total investment in the U.S. amounts to $165 billion, planning to build a total of 12 factories, including 8 wafer fabs and 4 advanced packaging plants. The first wafer fab entered mass production in Q4 2024, the second wafer fab's production schedule was moved up to the second half of 2027 due to strong demand from AI customers, the third wafer fab has broken ground, and the fourth wafer fab and the first advanced packaging plant are applying for relevant permits. TSMC originally owned about 1,100 acres of land in Arizona and recently purchased an adjacent plot of about 900 acres, reserving space for expansion in the coming years.
Regarding the timeline for packaging capacity deployment, TSMC is not the only player in Arizona. U.S. packaging company Amkor Technology previously stated that it is collaborating with Apple and Nvidia to build a packaging plant in Arizona, planning to complete construction by mid-2027 and begin production in early 2028, which is earlier than TSMC's current plan. TSMC and Amkor announced in 2024 that they would collaborate to introduce several of TSMC's advanced packaging technologies to Arizona. Zhang stated at this conference that technical discussions between TSMC and Amkor are ongoing, and both sides are evaluating which technical capabilities Amkor can provide to customers to accelerate the manufacturing of more products in the U.S.
TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei emphasized at a previous earnings call that all overseas investment decisions are centered on customer demand while also considering geographical flexibility, aiming to provide the most advanced capacity close to major markets like the U.S. Integrating advanced packaging into the U.S. layout signifies that TSMC's global manufacturing strategy is evolving from "wafer fabrication localization" to "complete supply chain localization," in response to the explosive demand for packaging capacity in the AI era and customers' dual demands for supply chain resilience.
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