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TSMC looks to double down on U.S. chip factories as talks in Europe falter

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437 points adventured | 6 comments | 15 May 21 00:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.234s | source | bottom
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JohnJamesRambo ◴[15 May 21 01:09 UTC] No.27161334[source]▶
I have no knowledge of the situation, why did they choose Arizona?
replies(7): >>27161341 #>>27161375 #>>27161385 #>>27161388 #>>27161398 #>>27161454 #>>27161661 #
blululu ◴[15 May 21 01:17 UTC] No.27161385[source]▶
Chandler Arizona is the site of Intel's 14nm Fab[1]. There is a large pool of local talent that they can tap into. Add to this the fact that Arizona has relatively favorable laws for corporate investments and a relatively low cost of living and it's a natural choice.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_si...

replies(1): >>27161403 #
bpodgursky ◴[15 May 21 01:20 UTC] No.27161403[source]▶
It's also geologically fairly stable.
replies(1): >>27161432 #
culturestate ◴[15 May 21 01:25 UTC] No.27161432[source]▶
Is this really a primary concern? Most of their main fabs are in Taiwan, which is very seismically active.
replies(2): >>27161441 #>>27161846 #
1. jeppesen-io ◴[15 May 21 01:27 UTC] No.27161441[source]▶
That's precisely why. It costs A LOT to make a fab seismic resistant

They've done this and know the costs

replies(1): >>27161956 #
2. culturestate ◴[15 May 21 03:07 UTC] No.27161956[source]▶
My point is that if you already successfully operate several seismically stable fabs and you're building a new one that's gonna cost you tens of billions of dollars anyway, there must be other factors that are higher on your requirements list.
replies(2): >>27161997 #>>27163641 #
3. sanxiyn ◴[15 May 21 03:16 UTC] No.27161997[source]▶
Fabs deal with earthquakes by stopping. They'd rather not stop.
replies(2): >>27162498 #>>27163615 #
4. ◴[15 May 21 04:54 UTC] No.27162498{3}[source]▶
5. culturestate ◴[15 May 21 09:07 UTC] No.27163615{3}[source]▶
This still doesn't make sense to me.

If seismic stability is a top-of-mind problem, why do they keep building new fabs in Taiwan? Why not move to diversify higher-end production sooner?

Why build in Arizona, a state which - while less seismically active than Taiwan - has multiple active faults and regular earthquakes?

It really seems like "a place that's flat and has a relatively low occurrence of natural disasters" is more of a would-be-nice than a must-have.

6. dageshi ◴[15 May 21 09:12 UTC] No.27163641[source]▶
If the operation you currently operate is made significantly more complicated to design and run due to seismic issues and you have the opportunity to start from scratch in a location which doesn't have those issues, why wouldn't you?