You may have read about a company planning to invest $165 billion in the U.S. Maybe, while driving west on Interstate 303 near 43rd Avenue and Dove Valley Road in northwest Phoenix, you have seen buildings sprouting up on land spanning 1,100 acres.
This is TSMC Arizona, the largest foreign direct investment in our nation’s history.
An investment so large is news-making — $165 billion is equivalent to approximately 330 Arizona Cardinals stadiums and just less than the gross national product of Ukraine. But as someone who has worked for TSMC for a quarter of a century, I know that locally, nationally and globally, our company’s legacy is about much more than economics.
At TSMC Arizona, we want to be the neighbor every community would love to have.
TSMC has been revolutionizing the semiconductor industry since our founding as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in 1987, manufacturing more than 12,000 products — from computers to smartphones and electric vehicles to AI systems. Today, with manufacturing sites across Asia, Europe and North America, that work continues, fueling innovation worldwide. Americans use products almost every day that are powered by TSMC chips.
Along with our stellar track record in technology, manufacturing excellence and our customers’ success, TSMC is equally proud of how we operate as a company — with humility, respect and in the best interests of our customers, employees, communities in which we operate and all our stakeholders. Our work is guided by four values: integrity, commitment, innovation and customer trust. We know we are doing well when our customers are successful.
We are also laser-focused on building the workforce of the future by investing millions of dollars in advanced manufacturing training programs for our employees. We are collaborating with community colleges and universities here and throughout the U.S. to prepare the next generation of semiconductor leaders in Arizona.
We collaborate regularly with state and local leaders to support our community. We are deeply committed to protecting our environment by prioritizing water recycling, energy conservation and waste reduction initiatives in every community where we do business.
Our impact in Arizona during the past four years has been significant: 20,000 unique construction jobs, plus 3,000 employees, with plans to grow to a 6,000-member workforce at our first three fabs by the end of the decade. And we are just getting started.
When we look back on our work decades from now, TSMC Arizona will measure our accomplishments in even more meaningful ways:
1. Did we delight our customers while enabling their business success?
2. Did we create a workplace where our employees feel proud, rewarded, supported and part of our “one team” TSMC culture?
3. Do you, our neighboring community, embrace us as a good and giving neighbor? Do residents deem us worthy of the Arizona land we sit on?
These three questions are top of mind for our teams as we continue to harness technology to make life better for all of us.
In Arizona, we are grateful for the unwavering support we have received from so many people and organizations. Without them, we would not be here to contribute our life’s work.
We are also deeply grateful to the 3,000 TSMC Arizona employees here every day, along with the thousands of trade workers who have contributed to the construction of this campus to date. Many of them are your own neighbors.
As we think about the future, our most fervent hope is to continue to contribute and unite with our community — from local leaders to our neighbors in greater Phoenix — to build together an enduring legacy of TSMC Arizona that is admired, respected and loved.
Editor’s note: TSMC Arizona President Rose Castanares has been with TSMC for 27 years. Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
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