Taiwan’s biggest company has promised to spend at least $100bn (£79bn) in the US as the island democracy faces the threat of Donald Trump’s tariffs and escalating Chinese aggression.
TSMC, which manufactures the world’s most advanced microchips for companies including Apple and Nvidia, announced the four-year investment in the country at a press conference in the White House on Monday.
CC Wei, the company’s chief executive, met Mr Trump and spoke alongside him at the event, with the US president praising the company as “the biggest there is, at a level you can’t even calculate frankly. They’re far and away the biggest, there’s nobody even close”.
Mr Trump said the deal would mean “the most powerful AI chips in the world will be made here in America”.
Mr Trump said five “cutting-edge” microchip facilities would be built in the US, saying it was among the biggest foreign direct investments in the US and would create up to 25,000 high-paying jobs.
It marks the latest attempt to ward off US tariffs by promising heavy investment in manufacturing. Mr Trump has accused Taiwan of stealing America’s semiconductor industry and has promised to hit imports with duties of 25pc.
The tariffs would be likely to raise the cost of computer chips imported into America, and deal a blow to the consumer electronics industry and tech companies that are spending billions to build advanced artificial intelligence systems.
TSMC had already pledged tens of billions of dollars in US investment, supported by subsidies granted during the Biden administration.
Monday’s $100bn investment adds to $65bn the company said last year it would invest in the US, after securing a $6.6bn grant to open a third semiconductor facility in Arizona.
Howard Lutnick, the US Commerce Secretary, said the latest announcement was so that TSMC can “avoid paying tariffs … that if they’re not here, they have to suffer”.
Taiwan produces around half of the world’s microchips and almost all of the most advanced ones, after heavy government support in the 1980s and 1990s.
The country’s importance to the global electronics industry is seen as providing a “silicon shield” that prevents China from a military attack.
TSMC’s investment announcement comes days after Mr Trump made clear in a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, that he believed economic links would be the equivalent of a security deal.
The US president has been pressing Ukraine to sign a minerals deal with the US but has been reluctant to make firm military commitments in return for access to the country’s raw materials.
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