Infographic: A New Microchip Construction Boom? (2024)

FAQs

Where are chip plants being built in USA? ›

The Biden administration will award up to $6.6 billion in grants to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the leading maker of the most advanced microchips, in a bid to bring some of the most cutting-edge semiconductor technology to the United States.

The microchip manufacturing process involves hundreds of steps and can take up to four months from design to mass production. In the cleanrooms of the chipmakers' fabs (fabrication facilities), air quality and temperature are kept tightly controlled as robots transport their precious wafers from machine to machine.

As of the end of 2023, there are 73 new semiconductor fabs being built or planned to be built, either as expansions to existing facilities but with the majority (50 facilities) being brand new. Of the 50 brand new semiconductor fabrication facilities, 42% of those are being built in the United States.

Intel, one of the world's oldest and biggest chipmakers, will spend more than $40 billion on new semiconductor fabs in the US.

In September 2021, Intel broke ground on two more semiconductor fabs, dubbed Fab 52 and Fab 62, on its Ocotillo campus in the Chandler area (upon their completion, Intel will have six factories on the campus). These factories are slated to produce 7 nm semiconductors using the company's 20A fabrication technology.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Ltd (TSMC) is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing advanced foundry processes and manufacturing services.

Taiwan Still #1 for Foreseeable Future

Taiwanese TSMC tops the list of the largest producer of advanced semiconductors. The company earned 60% (or nearly $17 billion) of semiconductor foundry revenue in Q1 2023. Japan is also getting into the mix, with Rapidus Corp. aiming to produce 2 nm chips by 2027.

It is Taiwan whcih produces over 60% of the world's semiconductors and over 90% of the most advanced ones. Most are manufactured by a single company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC).

It's about 30 percent more expensive with no government support to build a chip factory in the U.S. as it is abroad because of the subsidies and other factors. So they're trying to basically even it out, so if you're Intel, it's essentially neutral as to where you build your plant. What exactly are semiconductor chips?

What is the lifespan of a microchip? ›

Microchips are designed to last for 25 years, well over the average life expectancy for cats and dogs. This means that they will take care of your pet for their entire life. It's important to remember to update your contact information on the microchip's registry if you move or get a new phone number.

What makes manufacturing semiconductor chips so complicated? It requires land, permits, natural infrastructure, electricity, complicated machines and a lead time of more than 2 years to set up the mega-expensive fabrication plants and factories that build these chips.

That's just over half of the total new planned fabrication plants around the globe. Out of the 35 fabs being built in the West, 27 (77%) are being built in the United States. This number accounts for both expansions and new semiconductor fabs.

TSMC unveiled plans last January for production at the plant to begin in 2026. The factory is part of a $40 billion investment TSMC is making in two plants in Arizona. The company first announced plans to set up shop with one factory in the state in 2020, before announcing plans for a second fab in 2022.

Now Intel is building two more plants in tandem at the site, and they're even bigger, expected to use 400,000 cu yd of concrete. The $20-billion project to build Fab 52 and Fab 62, with general contractor Hoffman Construction Co. —which has previously built other fabs at the campus—started in 2021.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will build a third plant and begin production of the world's most advanced semiconductors in Phoenix by the end of the decade, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Monday morning.

Microchip, which employs nearly 1,000 Colorado workers, is the second semiconductor company to be identified for federal funding through the CHIPS and Science Act and the first in Colorado. This is the largest federal investment in CHIPS manufacturing announced by the Department of Commerce to date.