Yahoo Finance published this video item, entitled “LIVE: President Biden delivers remarks at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company” – below is their description.
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President Biden delivers remarks at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) factory after a tour of the facility.
In the four months since he signed the Chips and Science Act of 2022 into law, President Biden has made a habit of visiting semiconductor plants — or plants to be — to tout the effects of the law.
Recent stops have included the groundbreaking of an Intel (INTC) facility in Ohio and a Micron (MU) plant in upstate New York. On Tuesday, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will host the president as it unveils an upgrade of its capabilities in Phoenix and announce plans to build a second facility nearby.
The event promises to be a high-profile affair with figures from TSMC founder Morris Chang expected in attendance as well as Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook, the CEOs of Micron and NVIDIA (NVDA), and a bevy of political officials from Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s incoming governor, according to a White House official.
The plants, once online, will be “producing the most advanced semiconductor process technology in the country,” said TSMC Chairman Dr. Mark Liu in a statement, adding his thanks to the U.S. government for its “continual collaboration that has brought us here.”
At the event, TSMC and Biden are set to discuss two announcements, including a new facility in the works, also in Arizona, that will produce advanced 3 nanometer chips by 2026. The company is also announcing plans to upgrade its current facility to produce 4 nanometer chips by 2024.
President Biden is set to tour TSMC’s current facilities and deliver a speech at 2:00 pm local time (4:00 pm ET) to tout the overall investment of approximately $40 billion, which the White House is calling one of the largest foreign direct investments in U.S. history.
Biden notably didn’t visit Arizona during the recent campaign season, even while visiting neighboring states. Democrats like Governor-elect Hobbs and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) won anyway and the trip is also being criticized by Republicans for not including a visit to the border with Mexico.
As he departed for Phoenix on Tuesday morning, Biden spoke with reporters and pushed back in the criticism saying he wasn’t visiting the border “because there are more important things going on,” adding that includes TSMC’s plan to “invest billions of dollars in the new enterprise in the state.”
Billions for chipmakers
Signed into law in early August, the Chips and Science Act put $50 billion aside for the U.S. government to distribute directly to both U.S. and foreign chips companies if they agree to use the money to build facilities or engage in new research in the U.S. in the years ahead.
The cash is intended to jumpstart investments and ease reliance on the overseas nations that currently dominate chipmaking. The U.S. has fallen behind in semiconductor manufacturing in recent decades, especially when it comes to the most advanced chips. A recent report from the Semiconductor Industry Association found that 0% of the world’s most advanced logic semiconductors were manufactured in the U.S. in 2019.
The law — especially for foreign companies like TSMC — comes with what Biden aides describe as tight restrictions to ensure that the money doesn’t directly or inadvertently help U.S. adversaries like China that are also trying to buoy their own chip production.
The CHIPs Act was passed with GOP votes earlier this year and Arizona’s outgoing Republican Governor Doug Ducey is set to be in attendance on Tuesday to laud the law. Nevertheless, many conservative Republicans opposed the bill entirely with Kevin McCarthy, the possible next Speaker of the House, calling it corporate welfare at the time.
Companies will be able to formally apply for the CHIPS Act money beginning in February 2023, but Biden officials have already been negotiating terms and promoting the results.
TSMC says their plans will require 10,000 construction workers in the coming years followed by the creation of 10,000 high-tech jobs (including 4,500 new TSMC employees) in the years ahead.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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