US asks TSMC to supply more car chips as the Taiwan chip giant is said to eye Arizona plant expansion
- Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said her department is working to get Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to “prioritise the needs of our auto companies”
- Separately, TSMC is said to be planning up to five additional fabs in Arizona
The US Commerce Department is pressing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd and other Taiwanese firms to prioritise the needs of US automakers to ease chip shortages in the near term, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Tuesday.
Raimondo told a Council of the Americas event that longer term, increased investment was needed to produce more semiconductors in the United States and that other critical supply chains needed reshoring, including to allied countries.
“We’re working hard to see if we can get the Taiwanese and TSMC, which is a big company there, to, you know, prioritise the needs of our auto companies since there’s so many American jobs on the line,” Raimondo said in response to a question from a General Motors Co executive. “As I said, there’s not a day goes by that we don’t push on that.”
Raimondo added that “the medium- and long-term solution, though, is like very simply making more chips in America.”
