TAIPEI – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is aggressively recruiting more than 600 engineers and executives for what will be its first plant in the United States in 20 years, Nikkei Asia has learned.
The world’s largest contract chip maker will initially bring together a mix of current employees and new contracts to equip a $ 12 billion chip manufacturing plant that will begin construction next year in Arizona, Mark Liu said , president of TSMC, at Nikkei. The hiring push comes with U.S. officials and lawmakers urging semiconductor companies to bring more of their operations to the U.S.
According to Liu, a working group of more than 300 current employees and executives with experience in the development and production of 5-nanometer chips will be sent to help get the plant up and running. The five-nanometer chips are the most advanced in the world and are used in the latest iPhone 12 and Mac range processors. The United States has agreed to offer as many work visas as TSMC needs for this purpose, sources familiar with the matter told Nikkei.
In addition, TSMC is recruiting 300 new graduates and young engineers with one or two years of experience who are already eligible to work in the United States, Liu said. The president added that TSMC plans to bring these newly hired engineers to the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, where the company’s current 5 nm chip plant is located, for an intensive training program about a year earlier. to leave for Arizona.
“All communication and training for this program will be conducted in English to facilitate future coordination,” he said.
TSMC’s recruitment for the Arizona plant comes as the United States step up efforts to revive the country’s semiconductor manufacturing leadership. Intel, the largest U.S. chip maker by revenue, acknowledged in July that it was facing significant delays in advancing its chip-making technologies and was considering outsourcing production as a contingency plan. U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, are finalizing $ 25 billion in tax incentives to revive local chip production and offset China’s increased technological development.
The United States continues to be the world’s leading revenue chip industry despite South Korea and Taiwan now controlling a significant portion of advanced chip manufacturing capacity. According to IC Insights, Asia has become the largest chip manufacturing region in the world, accounting for 75% of the global semiconductor manufacturing capacity. Only Taiwan accounted for 22% of world production, with the majority contributed by TSMC.
The United States has also cited security concerns in its push to bolster its domestic semiconductor industry. TSMC is a key chip supplier for Apple and most other chip and technology giants such as Intel, Qualcomm and Google, but also manufactures chips for American chip designer Xilinx that are used in fighter jets. -35.
Washington has stepped up pressure on the Taiwanese company to produce its chips for military use in the U.S. to ensure that the manufacture of high-security components is free of possible Chinese interference, Nikkei Asia reported last January. TSMC was also forced to stop supplying key customer Huawei Technologies after the United States imposed stricter trade restrictions on the Chinese technology giant earlier this year, citing domestic security risks.
TSMC isn’t the only Asian giant to heed Washington’s call. Samsung, TSMC’s main rival in the foundry industry, as it knows the business of making chips for others, plans to expand its chip capacity in Texas to attract US customers such as Apple, Google, Qualcomm and Tesla. Samsung shared orders for Apple’s iPhone processor chips with TSMC until 2016. Samsung is also the world’s largest memory chip maker, supplying most device manufacturers.
TSMC announced its intention to build a 5 nm chip plant in Arizona in May. In November, TSMC created a wholly owned subsidiary in the state with a paid-up capital of $ 3.5 billion. This was followed late last month by Phoenix, Arizona officials, who approved a development deal with TSMC that will provide $ 205 million in city funds for infrastructure such as road and water improvements. On December 22, Taiwanese regulators approved TSMC’s investment in the US
TSMC said construction of the Arizona plant will begin next year and production will begin in 2024. The plant will eventually create more than 1,600 jobs directly and thousands of indirect jobs for the semiconductor ecosystem, said the company. Many TSMC suppliers such as Marketech International Corp., a semiconductor facility manufacturer, as well as the leading supplier of chip material Entegris, have indicated they are expanding to Arizona.
According to the TSMC website, it hires R&D engineers, process engineers, computer engineers, IT software engineers and other sites needed to operate an advanced chip plant.