TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, has announced new delays at its $40 million semiconductor site in Arizona, another blow to President Biden’s ambitions to bring manufacturing back to the US — and the thousands of good-paying jobs that come with it.
The Taiwanese chipmaker, which is a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia, has already pushed back the start of mass production at the site’s first factory to 2025, from the originally planned 2024. With the second factory, TSMC is now looking at 2027 or 2028 as the timeline for volume production, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Like with the first delay, TSMC chairman Mark Liu cited during a news conference Thursday a shortage of skilled workers for the delay of production at the second factory.
Back in July, the company said it was having trouble finding workers with specialized expertise required for equipment installation in a semiconductor factory. As a result, TSMC said it would send 500 experienced technicians from Taiwan to train local workers for a short period of time to bridge the skills gap.
TSMC also said it is having tense negotiations over how much money the US government will provide. At the same time, the firm has not determined the specific chip the second factory would produce.
The labor problems at TSMC’s Arizona plants
The delays illustrate the problems of building up a factory fast. Labor unions have accused TSMC of using a “skills shortage” as an excuse to hire cheaper, foreign labor. Union representatives told the American Prospect that incentive pay was cut for unionized elections, and after receiving the news, at least 50 union electricians decided to leave. TSMC later brought in 25 non-union employees from Taiwan.
Others point to safety concerns at the site. A former supervisor at the TSMC site in Arizona told the Guardian that disorganization from management and a lack of knowledge by bosses from Taiwan on adhering to safety codes and regulations in the US are causing delays.
In the last three decades, the US share of global semiconductor production has fallen from 37% to just 12%, according to a White House report.