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President Joe Biden and Apple CEO Tim Cook attended TSMC’s December 6, 2022, ceremony in Phoenix because the Arizona project joined two priorities: expanding U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and securing a domestic source of advanced chips for major customers such as Apple. The $40 billion figure referred to TSMC’s original plan for two Arizona fabs. By November 2024, a federal award announcement described a larger plan: three Phoenix fabs costing more than $65 billion, with up to $6.6 billion in direct CHIPS funding and up to $5 billion in proposed loans.
What Biden and Tim Cook were doing at the Phoenix event
The December 6, 2022, gathering was a TSMC equipment-opening ceremony, not a joint announcement by Biden and Cook. TSMC was marking progress at its Arizona campus; the president and the Apple CEO were among the high-profile guests. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, AMD CEO Lisa Su, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang also attended.
Biden’s presence put the project in the context of U.S. industrial policy: the federal government wanted more semiconductor manufacturing on American soil. Cook represented a major customer for TSMC’s advanced chips. In 2022, Cook said, “We are bullish on the future of American innovation.” Biden later described the expanded plan as an investment in U.S. manufacturing. The event’s significance was therefore broader than a factory milestone: it brought together a chipmaker, a major customer, and public officials supporting domestic production.
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What TSMC’s $40 billion announcement covered
TSMC said the approximately $40 billion investment covered two Arizona fabs. In the December 2022 announcement, the company said the first fab was scheduled to make chips using its N4 process technology in 2024, while construction had begun on a second fab targeted for 3nm production in 2026. Those were announced production targets, not confirmation of when either fab actually began production.
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TSMC said that, when complete, the two fabs would be capable of producing more than 600,000 wafers annually, with an estimated end-product value of more than $40 billion. Those figures described projected capacity and value, not audited output or realized economic returns. The company also projected 10,000 additional high-paying high-tech jobs, including 4,500 direct TSMC jobs.
How the later three-fab plan differs
Federal support and TSMC’s announced campus plans grew after the original two-fab announcement. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s November 15, 2024, award notice described a plan of more than $65 billion for three fabs in Phoenix. It said TSMC Arizona would receive up to $6.6 billion in direct CHIPS funding and up to $5 billion in proposed loans. “Up to” describes a maximum award, not proof that the full amount had already been disbursed.
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| Measure | December 2022 plan | November 2024 plan |
|---|---|---|
| Announced investment | Approximately $40 billion for two fabs (TSMC, 2022). | More than $65 billion for three Phoenix fabs (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2024). |
| Fabs and process targets | Two fabs: first targeted N4 production in 2024; second targeted 3nm production in 2026 (TSMC, 2022). | Three fabs; process technologies and production timing not stated in the Commerce Department’s November 2024 award notice. |
| Federal support | Not stated in TSMC’s December 2022 announcement. | Up to $6.6 billion in direct CHIPS funding and up to $5 billion in proposed loans (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2024). |
| Projected jobs | 10,000 additional high-paying high-tech jobs, including 4,500 direct TSMC jobs (TSMC, 2022). | Approximately 6,000 direct manufacturing jobs and more than 20,000 construction jobs (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2024). |
The two job estimates describe different announced plans and categories; they should not be added together or treated as verified employment totals. Likewise, the later investment figure is an expanded campus plan, not a revision of what the original $40 billion covered.
Will Apple chips be made in the United States?
Apple said in 2025 that mass production of its chips had begun at TSMC’s Arizona facility. Apple described itself as the largest customer at TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona and said more than 2,000 workers were employed at the facility at the time of its announcement. This supports a specific answer: Apple chips were being mass-produced at the Arizona facility by the time of Apple’s 2025 statement. It does not establish that every Apple chip, or all chips in Apple products, would be made there.
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Why advanced chip production involves more than one company
A leading-edge fab depends on a network of customers and specialized equipment suppliers, not just the chipmaker. At the 2022 ceremony, TSMC named Applied Materials, ASM, ASML, Lam Research, KLA, and Tokyo Electron as suppliers of six semiconductor tools. The presence of Apple, AMD, and NVIDIA executives also reflected how companies that design or use advanced chips are linked to manufacturing capacity, even though the ceremony itself marked TSMC’s project.
That ecosystem is one reason the Arizona investment mattered to U.S. policymakers: domestic chip capacity depends on manufacturing facilities, equipment, customers, and the workforce needed to operate them. TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said the company aimed for the completed Arizona facility to be the “greenest semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States” and to produce the country’s most advanced process technology. That was an expressed aim, not a measured outcome.
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