WASHINGTON – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer, will invest $100 billion in the United States, President Donald Trump announced on Monday. 

“This is a tremendous thing for our country,” Trump said on Monday. 

“The most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America,” Trump continued. 

What is TSMC? 

Dig deeper:

TSMC produces chips for huge tech companies, including Apple, Intel and Nvidia. 

The company had already announced plans to invest more than $65 billion in the U.S., including three plants in Arizona after the Biden administration offered billions in subsidies. 

“This $100 billion in new investments will go into building five cutting-edge fabrication facilities in the great state (Arizona),” the president said on Monday. 

Trump stated the new investment would create “many high-paying jobs.” 

The $100 billion in new investments is in addition to TSMC’s previous $65 billion investment made during former President Joe Biden’s term. 

CHIPS and Science Act

The backstory:

Biden in 2022 signed a sweeping $280 billion law, the CHIPS and Science Act, to try to reinvigorate chip manufacturing in the U.S., especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

During the pandemic, chip factories, especially those overseas making the majority of processors, shut down. It had a ripple effect that led to wider problems, such as automobile factory assembly lines shutting down and fueled inflation. 

Trump has criticized the law and taken a different approach, instead threatening to impose high tariffs on imported chips to bring chip manufacturing back to the U.S. 

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the announcement on Monday.