ASU President Crow responds to TSMC's CHIPS funding

Arizona State University President Michael Crow comments on the Biden-Harris Administration’s April 8 announcement that the U.S. Department of Commerce and TSMC Arizona Corporation have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms to provide up to $6.6 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act.

This proposed funding would support TSMC’s investment of more than $65 billion in three leading-edge fabs in Phoenix, which will manufacture the world’s most advanced semiconductors, a press release explained.

After initially announcing two fabs in the U.S., TSMC Arizona is committing to build a third fab before the end of the decade.

With this proposed funding, TSMC Arizona would be ensuring the formation of a scaled leading-edge cluster in Arizona, creating approximately 6,000 high-tech, high wage jobs, more than 20,000 accumulated unique construction jobs, and tens of thousands of indirect jobs in this decade and bringing the most advanced process technology to the United States, the release detailed.

Of this development, Crow stated in the release that the historic investment in TSMC is the continued expansion of the CHIPS and Science Act’s impact, supporting a group that ASU and others in Arizona have assisted.

“Today’s announcement represents not only an acknowledgment of the impact TSMC will have on innovation in semiconductor manufacturing and research in the United States, it serves as a call to action for ASU, which has pledged its full capacity for innovation, workforce development and research to advance TSMC’s long-term success,” Crow stated. “We look forward to the collaboration and work ahead.”

Through this proposed investment in TSMC Arizona, the Biden-Harris Administration would be significantly strengthening U.S. economic and national security by providing a reliable domestic supply of the chips that underpin the future economy, powering the AI boom and other fast-growing industries like consumer electronics, automotive, Internet of Things and high-performance computing, the release explained.