Yesterday we posted a report titled "The Trump Administration may Sign a Deal Tomorrow with TSMC to build a Plant in Arizona by 2023 for Secret Military Chips+. Today TSMC officially announced its intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the United States with the mutual understanding and commitment to support from the U.S. federal government and the State of Arizona.

TSMC's press release dated today, May 15, states that "This facility, which will be built in Arizona, will utilize TSMC’s 5-nanometer technology for semiconductor wafer fabrication, have a 20,000 semiconductor wafer per month capacity, create over 1,600 high-tech professional jobs directly, and thousands of indirect jobs in the semiconductor ecosystem.

Construction is planned to start in 2021 with production targeted to begin in 2024. TSMC’s total spending on this project, including capital expenditure, will be approximately US$12 billion from 2021 to 2029.

This U.S. facility not only enables us to better support our customers and partners, it also gives us more opportunities to attract global talents. This project is of critical, strategic importance to a vibrant and competitive U.S. semiconductor ecosystem that enables leading U.S. companies to fabricate their cutting-edge semiconductor products within the United States and benefit from the proximity of a world-class semiconductor foundry and ecosystem.

TSMC welcomes continued strong partnership with the U.S. administration and the State of Arizona on this project. This project will require significant capital and technology investments from TSMC. The strong investment climate in the United States, and its talented workforce make this and future investments in the U.S. attractive to TSMC.

U.S. adoption of forward-looking investment policies to enable a globally competitive environment for a leading edge semiconductor technology operation in the U.S. will be crucial to the success of this project. It will also give us the confidence this and other future investments by TSMC and its supply chain companies will be successful.

In the United States, TSMC currently operates a fab in Camas, Washington and design centers in both Austin, Texas and San Jose, California. The Arizona facility would be TSMC’s second manufacturing site in the United States."

While TSMC is projecting its 5nm chip process will be manufactured in Arizona, in four years' time TSMC will be on the cusp of being able to produce chips in the 2nm range.

We ended our report yesterday by stating: "Whether TSMC will decide to piggyback chip processing in the U.S. for their top customers such as Apple, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and others is unknown at this time."

TSMC's press release is certainly hinting that producing chips may not be restricted to the U.S. government but also to "customers and partners" which certainly opens the door for making chips for U.S. partners as previously noted which includes Apple.