According to a recent report from Nikkei, TSMC has refined its expertise in building semiconductor fabs in the U.S. after a five-year construction cycle for its first Arizona plant on March 28. The company now aims to shorten the timeline for future fabs to just two years.
Currently, TSMC is finalizing equipment installation at its Phoenix-based Fab 21 Phase 1 and plans to transfer the tools to Phase 2 once construction is completed.
- Phase 1 (N4 Process): Construction started in 2020, mass production expected in 2025.
- Phase 2 (3nm Process): Trial production in 2026, mass production in 2028.
- Phase 3 (2nm Process): Potential trial production in 2028, possible mass production in 2029.
TSMC executives stated that after overcoming initial challenges such as labor shortages and cost overruns, they have successfully addressed most issues and identified reliable local construction partners. If Phase 3 is completed as scheduled, it will become the first U.S.-based fab capable of producing 2nm chips.
Despite faster construction progress, semiconductor equipment supply has emerged as a new bottleneck. Key suppliers like ASML and Applied Materials are facing severe order backlogs, making it difficult to shorten the delivery cycle for critical lithography tools. As a result, TSMC’s U.S. fabs may lag behind Taiwan’s facilities by one to two process nodes.
Additionally, supply chain sources indicate that chips produced in the U.S. fabs will be limited to specific product lines and will not be used in Apple’s latest flagship devices. The most advanced manufacturing processes will continue to be reserved for TSMC’s Taiwan facilities.
- Phase 1 production: Expected to manufacture the A16 Bionic chip found in the iPhone 14 Pro and the S9 chip for the Apple Watch.
- Phase 2 (3nm mass production in 2028): Likely to produce A17 Pro, M3, A18, and M4 chips.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously mentioned that the first Apple Silicon chip based on the 2nm process will be the A20, expected to debut in the iPhone 18 series next year. This suggests that TSMC’s U.S. fabs will lag significantly behind the cutting-edge technologies required for Apple’s high-end devices. By the time TSMC’s Phase 3 fab begins 2nm production, Apple’s flagship chips could already be manufactured using the 1.6nm (A16) process.
While TSMC’s U.S. expansion is progressing, the technological gap with its Taiwan fabs underscores the continued dominance of Taiwan in the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
