TSMC complains it can’t find enough skilled workers to get its Arizona chip plants ready in time, delaying mass production to 2025
TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, has pushed back the planned 2024 start date of production at its Arizona factory by a year due to a shortage of skilled workers.
The company is “encountering certain challenges as there is an insufficient amount of skilled workers with those specialized expertise required for equipment installation in a semiconductor-grade facility,” TSMC chairman Mark Liu said during a July 20 earnings call.
In the interim period, the company said it’ll send over “experienced technicians from China to train the local skilled workers to bridge the skills gap. Last month, Nikkei Asia reported that a “task force” of more than 500 experienced workers will be heading to the US to help set up specialized equipment.
Construction on the Arizona microchips manufacturing plant, which was supposed to start producing 4 nanometer chips next year, is now due to start in 2025. The opening of a second fab, which will produce smaller and more complex 3nm chips, is still on track for 2026.
TSMC’s move deals a blow to president Joe Biden’s agressive cold-war started with China — with US currently currently down to around 10% of global semiconductor output from 40% three decades ago.
California congressman Ro Khanna tweeted yesterday (July 21) that he is “deeply disturbed that TSMC is replacing union workers with non-unionized workers from China.” Khanna called for the government to “condition grants on paying a prevailing wage and treating union workers fairly.”