Semiconductor Company Claims Arizona Factory Will Start Production in 2025 as It Sees Biggest Profit Drop Since 2019

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) said it is on schedule to begin production at its first Phoenix facility in the first half of 2025 during a Thursday earnings call. During the call, TSMC also revealed its greatest drop in profit since 2019.

TSMC reported a third-quarter profit of about $6.69 billion during Thursday’s earnings call, according to CNBC, which explained the company saw its “largest profit decline” since early 2019, but still “bested” expectations of stock analysts who predicted worse numbers amid weakened demand for consumer electronics following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company is building two facilities in Phoenix, and previously claimed its first facility would begin production in 2024. TSMC said it was on track to meet its new 2025 target.

In the call, TSMC representatives noted “strong support” from all levels of government for its Phoenix operations, according to the Phoenix Business Journal. The company also said it is continuing to “develop positive relationships and work closely with local trade and union partners.” Investors may have been concerned about such relationships after TSMC blamed the first plant’s delay to 2025 on the lack of sufficient local talent in Arizona.

While the company noted it has already hired about 1,100 employees for its Phoenix facility, The Arizona Sun Times previously reported that about half of those workers are reportedly Taiwan citizens who relocated to Arizona with their families, even though the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act limited how many foreign workers could be employed.

The company likewise noted it has about 12,000 construction workers on site building the facility but did not mention its efforts to recruit those workers from Taiwan, which briefly soured the company’s relationship with an Arizona construction union.

TSMC did not address the reports indicating that it is delaying deliveries of high-end equipment to its Arizona facilities. The company previously dismissed the reports it is “increasingly concerned” about decreasing consumer demand for electronics as a “market rumor.”

Also absent from the earnings call was a mention of the reports that TSMC will ship incomplete semiconductors back to Taiwan for a complicated final “packaging” process before they can be sold to major electronics manufacturers.

Nor did the company mention future Arizona facilities, as the Biden administration originally urged TSMC to build a total of six plants in Arizona.

TSMC is the world’s leading producer of semiconductors and components used in most modern electronics and mostly sells its products to companies like Apple. Its Phoenix fabrication plants were originally reported to create products for Apple’s line of iPhones and potentially for its desktop computers.

President Joe Biden seemed to point to TSMC’s two Phoenix facilities as evidence of his administration causing an Arizona “manufacturing boom” in a campaign advertisement that began airing in Arizona on Labor Day.

– – –

Tom Pappert is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Tom on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Workers” by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.