Apple supplier TSMC confirms it’s building an Arizona chip plant

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which makes Apple’s A-series chips, plans to build an advanced chip factory in Arizona. The news was first reported yesterday by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by TSMC today.

The plant will make 5-nanometer transistor chips for TSMC, which the company has reportedly been testing with customers in Taiwan over the past several months. TSMC says the facility will create over 1,600 “high-tech professional jobs,” with construction due to start in 2021 and production slated to begin in 2024. TSMC says its total spend on the plant will be around $12 billion from 2021 to 2029. The company already operates a fabrication factory in Camas, Washington and design centers in Texas and California.

It’s not yet clear what financial incentives the company may receive from state or federal government, but the WSJ reports that the State and Commerce departments are involved in the plans. In addition to Apple, TSMC counts Nvidia and Huawei among its clients.

Bloomberg notes that a chip factory is expensive to build; TSMC spent $17 billion on a new plant in Tainan, Taiwan, which is slated to begin production on iPhone components this year. Apple has long been rumored to be working on the production of Macs with its own chips instead of relying on Intel, with one report last month suggesting TSMC would produce the chips based on a 5-nanometer fabrication process, like the Arizona plant would reportedly use.

Update Friday May 15th, 6:25AM ET: This story and headline has been updated after news of the plant was confirmed by TSMC.