Delays in TSMC’s Arizona plant spark supply chain worries

Delays at TSMC’s Arizona plant could compel its customers to rely on Taiwan-based facilities, leaving them vulnerable to geopolitical risks tied to Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductor production.

“This situation could also delay the rollout of next-generation products in the US market, affecting timelines for AI, gaming, and high-performance computing innovations,” Rawat said. “Moreover, without access to local, advanced chips, US tech companies will incur higher transportation and import costs, diminishing their profit margins. In competitive sectors like AI and autonomous vehicles, slower time-to-market could weaken global competitiveness.”

For TSMC, the delays and challenges could have significant implications for fab operations, particularly in maintaining profitability and efficiency.

“Cost of maintaining the fab, the fab utilization rate, and the yield rate are key metrics to keep the fab profitable,” said Neil Shah, partner, and co-founder at Counterpoint Research. “So, TSMC would look to move as much business as possible from its customers to the Arizona fab to match current and future capacity, maintain the utilization rate, and then build on the yield rate to maximize efficiency.”