New York
CNN
—
The chief executive of chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, C.C. Wei, is set to meet with President Donald Trump on Monday.
The meeting comes as the White House said it is set to announce a more than $100 billion investment in the United States by a chipmaker from Taiwan, amid a push by Trump to encourage investments in American manufacturing.
The White House did not name the company that will be involved in the planned announcement, which is slated for Monday at 1:30 p.m. ET in the Roosevelt Room. A TSMC spokesperson confirmed Wei is set to meet with Trump, but declined to comment on any possible forthcoming announcement. But TSMC is the largest and most prominent semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan — and the world — and its chips power countless tech products, from cars to iPhones.
TSMC in recent years has invested in manufacturing capacity in the United States, which includes a new Arizona factory that began producing chips for Apple in January.
“Back in 2020, thanks to President Trump’s vision and support, we embarked on our journey of establishing advanced chip manufacturing in the United States,” TSMC said Monday in a statement to CNN. “We’re pleased to have an opportunity to meet with the President and look forward to discussing our shared vision for innovation and growth in the semiconductor industry, as well as exploring ways to bolster the technology sector along with our customers.”
If Trump and Wei do make the announcement together Monday afternoon, TSMC will become just the latest tech company promising to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into the United States.
Apple said last week it would invest $500 billion to expand facilities, manufacturing and projects across the United States over the next four years. The announcement appeared to be aimed at helping the company avoid new tariffs on goods imported from China, although some of the investment efforts were likely already underway.
Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank also announced in January that they would team up to create a new company, called Stargate, to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Together, the companies plan to invest $500 billion into the project in the coming years.
TSMC initially announced a $12 billion investment to build an advanced semiconductor factory in Arizona in 2020, amid concerns from the first Trump administration that America’s reliance on chipmakers in Asia had become a national security threat.
But TSMC’s US efforts received a big boost under President Joe Biden, due to his CHIPS and Science Act, which helped fund investments in American chipmaking. In 2022, the company said it would build a second Arizona plant and increase its investment in the state to $40 billion, although that second facility has faced delays.
New presidents and presidents-elect have often held joint announcements with companies about massive US investments to promote American manufacturing. But their track record for success is mixed.
Trump and Foxconn announced in 2017 a $10 billion electronics factory in Wisconsin that was expected to create 13,000 jobs. But the company eventually abandoned most of its plans for the facility and the high-tech products it was supposed to build. The company in 2021 said it would invest just $672 million in a revised deal that would create fewer than 1,500 jobs.
Foxconn said it has invested $1 billion in the state, however, and still has a major manufacturing site for data servers with more than 1,000 employees. But the facility Trump announced has become a Microsoft data hub that aims to train employees and manufacturers on how to best use artificial intelligence.
–CNN’s Alayna Treene contributed to this report.
