White House shakes off production delays for billion-dollar Arizona semiconductor plant
Christian Datoc
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The White House downplayed Thursday’s announcement that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company won’t start production at its billion-dollar Arizona manufacturing plant until 2025, a year later than expected.
TSMC Chairman Mark Liu made the announcement on a Thursday morning earnings call, citing a shortage of skilled labor needed to complete the installation of equipment.
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The Biden administration had previously touted the TSMC project, alongside two similar facilities operated by U.S. chip producer Intel, as major investments in American manufacturing spurred by President Joe Biden’s spending packages, including the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and bipartisan infrastructure law.
Asked Thursday if Biden is “concerned that some of his priorities won’t be done until the end of his term,” White House principal deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton deferred to TSMC’s statement from earlier in the day.
“We’ve seen historic manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, and the associated jobs, and private investment coming back to our shores,” she told reporters flying with Biden to Pennsylvania Thursday. “The workforce provisions in the CHIPS and Science Act will enable us to ensure that we have the workforce we need, have the American skilled laborers that we need to help companies like TSMC follow through on their commitments, and maximize the economic potential of these projects going forward.”
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You can listen to Thursday’s press gaggle in full below.
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