In 2020, TSMC announced that it will spend $12 billion to build a 5nm chip factory (Fab 21) in Arizona, USA.

In July this year, TSMC’s Fab 21 plant in Arizona, USA held a beam-up ceremony.

According to media reports, local state officials in the United States revealed that the main construction work of the plant has been completed. In fact, the holding of the beam ceremony earlier means that the infrastructure of the factory is almost completed, and then the equipment will be installed and commissioned.

According to TSMC’s plan, the factory will be mass-produced in 2024, so there are still two years to complete the follow-up work, including small trial production, large trial production, etc.

The outside world believes that this 5nm factory of TSMC will produce related chips for Apple, the number one customer, including but not limited to A-series, M-series processors, etc.

However, TSMC’s approach to building a 5nm chip factory in the United States is not without cost, that is, the cost is too high. The retired TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou believes that the United States’ attempt to increase its domestic chip production is a wasteful and expensive futile move.

Zhang Zhongmou believes that the United States lacks talents to work in fabs, and it cannot achieve 7×24-hour production in three shifts, and the cost is 50% higher.