TSMC Likely Most Affected by US CHIPS Act

Taiwanese market research firm TrendForce said on April 17 that TSMC is likely to be most affected by the U.S. CHIPS Act. According to the act, semiconductor companies subsidized by the U.S. government cannot invest in China for 10 years. TrendForce said that TSMC’s facility expansion in China would be impossible.

“Although the same ban is applied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as well, they are expected to be able to increase production by technological improvement without facility expansion,” it explained, adding, “This is because the ban depends on the amount of wafer input, so the number of NAND flash layers does not matter.”

In this regard, TSMC recently announced that it would build a plant in Arizona by investing US$3.5 billion and utilize its 3-nm process technology in the United States starting from 2026. The Taiwanese company initiated 28-nm facility expansion in Nanjing last year. This facility is likely to be subject to the U.S. restrictions.

Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett bought US$4.1 billion of TSMC shares in the summer of 2022 and announced late last year that he sold 86 percent of the shares. “TSMC is a good company to invest in, but I sold the shares for geopolitical reasons,” he said.