Biden heads to Phoenix to announce opening of second TSMC plant

Dec. 6 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden will travel to Phoenix on Tuesday to announce the opening of a semiconductor plant, which will be one of the largest foreign investments in U.S. history.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to open a second chip plant in Arizona, raising its investment in the state from $12 billion to $40 billion. The company also plans to announce that it will be producing more technically advanced chips than originally proposed.

Biden plans to tie the opening of the plant back to the CHIPS and Science Act, which he signed in August. The law includes $52.7 billion in loans, grants and other incentives as well as billions more in tax credits to encourage investment in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.

"Under this president, we have seen many American manufacturing jobs coming back to the U.S., and a lot of that is because of the President's economic policies," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "We've seen more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs created under this president."

The semiconductor fabrication facility is expected to open in 2024. By next year TSMC expects to have more than 2,000 people working at the facility.

Once the TSMC plants open, they will produce enough chips to meet the U.S. annual demand, 600,000 wafers per year, Ronnie Chatterji, National Economic Council acting deputy director for industrial policy who oversees CHIPS implementation, told CNBC.

"It's the foundation of our personal electronics, and also the future of quantum computing and AI," Chatterji said. "At scale, these two [factories] could meet the entire U.S. demand for U.S. chips when they're completed."