Phoenix mayor says TSMC’s $265 billion investment is historic on multiple levels

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said Friday that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s total investment in Arizona is historic on both the local and national levels.

When TSMC unveiled plans to build a microchip manufacturing facility in Phoenix in 2020, the company committed $12 billion to the project.

“And at that time, we were so excited about $12 billion, which would have been by far the largest investment in our city’s history,” Gallego told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.

TSMC has been increasing its Phoenix investment over the years. The amount ballooned by another $100 billion on Thursday to a historic $265 billion total.

“Now it’s at 265, unquestionably the largest foreign direct investment in U.S. history,” Gallego said. “And it may be the largest single economic development investment in our country’s 250-year history.”

TSMC to build four more semiconductor fabrication facilities

Gallego said the new investment will fund four more semiconductor fabrication facilities at the TSMC Arizona campus in northwest Phoenix, near 43rd Avenue and Dove Valley Road west of Interstate 17.

She described how the project is remaking the landscape.

“If you haven’t been up on the I-17 and seen the project, it’s hard to explain how big just one of these facilities are. … We have multiple of the largest cranes in the world at that site. It’s worth seeing how deep the holes are and how big the buildings are,” she said.

The impact goes beyond the TSMC Arizona construction site. Gallego cited the rebuilt interchange at I-17 and Loop 303 as an infrastructure upgrade that benefits the surrounding community.

“We’re even building a new medical school with ASU that focuses on engineering and producing doctors, because we want to make sure the medical devices of the future that use semiconductors will be designed and manufactured in Phoenix,” she said.

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