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

I have no knowledge of the situation, why did they choose Arizona?

> EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton, who has championed the Eurofab idea, also spoke with TSMC's Europe president, Maria Marced, last month. Although Breton publicly called the TSMC talk a "good exchange," a second person familiar with the matter said the TSMC talks in Europe have gone "very poorly."

Sometimes it seems that EU politicians want to be seen as cutting a hard bargain with industry that they actually harm themselves and the EU. A big example was with the COVID vaccines. The EU felt the need to be seen as striking a good bargain, that for want of a few Euros per dose, they missed out getting the vaccine much earlier. With chips, if you really want the EU to be at the cutting edge of tech, you need these cutting edge fabs in the EU.

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...

Arizona has a very long semiconductor industry history:

https://www.chipsetc.com/semiconductors-in-arizona.html

"The state of Arizona has been home to many semiconductor & electronics manufacturing Companies since the 1950's, including the SouthWest's Pioneer Semiconductor Company - Motorola. Motorola's research and development lab in Phoenix introduced the world's first commercial high-power germanium-based transistor in 1955. The lab would expand over time to become Motorola's semiconductor division and by 1960 they would have three manufacturing sites in the Phoenix area."

"Intel corp., Arizona's 7th largest employer, started up their Fab 6 & Assembly Test facility in Chandler back in 1980, and their 720-acre Ocotillo Fab 12 site in 1996."

Yeah, that probably mixed with the idea that they should leave the space to local players (who will magically develop a cutting edge know-how?)