WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday announced a new $100 billion investment from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to build new facilities in the U.S.
The move, which Trump projected will add 20,000 to 25,000 new jobs, comes as part of his bid to boost domestic manufacturing, particularly on computer chips, which are crucial to modern technology.
“Semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st century economy and, really, without the semiconductors, there is no economy,” Trump said. “Powering everything from AI to automobiles to advanced manufacturing, we must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here in American factories with American skill and American labor.”
The president was joined by the chief executive officer of the Taiwanese chip company, a global leader in semiconductor manufacturing, at the White House to make the announcement. TSMC CEO C. C. Wei said the new investment will allow for the construction of three new manufacturing sites and two new packaging facilities in Arizona. He pointed to the importance of being able to produce chips that support the progress of artificial intelligence and smartphones.
The $100 billion investment comes on top of the $65 billion the company already announced last year to build plants in Arizona when former President Joe Biden was in office. As part of that investment, TSMC was awarded $6.6 billion from Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, a 2022 bipartisan law designed to promote semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
Trump said the move, paired with “a couple of others that we're doing,” could bring 40% of the chip manufacturing market to the U.S., referring to the issue as a matter of economic and national security. It is unknown what other investments he may have been referring to at the moment.
“This is a tremendous move by the most powerful company in the world,” Trump said of TSMC.
The announcement came hours before Trump’s long-pledged tariffs on Canada and Mexico are set to take effect as part of the president's wide-reaching effort to use fees on imports to incentivize its North American neighbors to crack down on the border and fentanyl and balance trading relationships with other partners. He is set to impose sweeping reciprocal tariffs on trading partners around the world in April and touted TSMC’s investment as an example of a company that is getting “ahead of the game.”
"If they did them in Taiwan to send them here, they'll have 25% or 30% or 50% or whatever the number may be, someday — it'll go only up," he said of future tariffs on imports of chips into the U.S. "But by doing it here, he has no tariffs, so he's way ahead of the game."