Tuesday, April 29th 2025

TSMC's US Supply Chain to Take Up To a Decade to Complete
According to reports in the Taiwan media, TSMC's suppliers have stated that they are willing to accompany TSMC on its expansion in the US. This comes on the back of TSMC's pledge in March to invest US$100 billion in Arizona where its current fabs are located. However, due to TSMC's currently limited production quantities in the US there's little incentive for these companies to set up branch offices in the US, even taking the tariffs into account. In other words, it might take up to a decade before TSMC has a comparable supply chain in the US, to that it has in Taiwan and China today.
The Taiwan government has discussed the matter with various chemical suppliers and the conclusion was that TSMC's production volumes at the moment don't warrant the costs of setting up a local supply chain and that it's likely to take seven to eight years for them to be fully established in the US from the get-go. On the other hand, if TSMC's volumes reach the proposed levels that the company has outlined in its fab roadmaps, we're likely to see most of its supply chain partners setting up business in the US. This also suggests that TSMC might not have bothered with approaching Intel's suppliers, which is somewhat surprising, as many of them ought to be able to provide similar chemicals and materials as TSMC's suppliers in Taiwan offer the company. It's also possible that Intel's suppliers haven't provided pricing that TSMC finds competitive enough. Regardless, at some point in the future, there's likely to be more competition when it comes to semiconductor production materials suppliers, assuming TSMC expands its fabs according to plan.
Source:
Focus Taiwan
The Taiwan government has discussed the matter with various chemical suppliers and the conclusion was that TSMC's production volumes at the moment don't warrant the costs of setting up a local supply chain and that it's likely to take seven to eight years for them to be fully established in the US from the get-go. On the other hand, if TSMC's volumes reach the proposed levels that the company has outlined in its fab roadmaps, we're likely to see most of its supply chain partners setting up business in the US. This also suggests that TSMC might not have bothered with approaching Intel's suppliers, which is somewhat surprising, as many of them ought to be able to provide similar chemicals and materials as TSMC's suppliers in Taiwan offer the company. It's also possible that Intel's suppliers haven't provided pricing that TSMC finds competitive enough. Regardless, at some point in the future, there's likely to be more competition when it comes to semiconductor production materials suppliers, assuming TSMC expands its fabs according to plan.
2 Comments on TSMC's US Supply Chain to Take Up To a Decade to Complete
It's like they are trying to claim that those other supply chains were set-up/developed overnight or in a few days/weeks or something.....
Yea they were all in the same country, having to follow the same gov't rules/laws ect, but still, mass production of anything electronic takes many years of planning, negotiating, setting up the logistics, staging, permits, construction etc etc