TSMC Arizona fab opening reportedly delayed until January 2025, TSMC prepares for 'Trump 2.0'

TSMC's new Arizona fab opening ceremony has reportedly been delayed from December 2024 until January 2025, after President-elect Trump is inaugurated and US (and TSMC, and the world) enters the "Trump 2.0" generation.

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In a new report from DigiTimes, we're learning that the "supply chain revealed" that TSMC has informed invited guests to its Arizona fab completion ceremony -- something both President Biden and President-elect Trump are expected to attend -- and "may be postponed until after Trump takes office in January or then, depending on the atmosphere".

TSMC is the key player in the technology industry, making chips for the largest tech companies on the planet -- most of them from the USA -- including NVIDIA, Intel, Qualcomm, Apple, and more. TSMC is aware of the geopolitical risks, and that the changing of the administration in the US will change across the next 4 years. DigiTimes reports that the "script had to be rewritten again, and it (TSMC) was once again on alert and combat readiness".

• Read more: TSMC 'forbidden' from making 2nm chips outside of Taiwan, worries of future TSMC-US relations
• Read more: President-elect Trump's victory is pushing TSMC partners to set up factories in the USA

We also heard recently that the Taiwanese government has "forbidden" TSMC from making advanced 2nm chips outside of Taiwan, so we'll see the new Arizona fab making 7nm, 5nm, and 3nm chips, while its bleeding-edge 2nm chips will be made at home, in Taiwan.

The Biden administration under the CHIPS Act has been shovelling money into the firepit -- Intel in this case -- with tens of billions of dollars in loans, subsidies, and grants. Once Trump is back in office, all of it is up in the air, but we know he'll want US superiority, so expect the US semiconductor industry (and the tech industry at large) to be safe.

The winds of change are here, for TSMC, US, and the tech industry... as this new Arizona plant is a big step forward for US semiconductor manufacturing.