> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://pvweekly.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # TSMC’s Arizona award became final in 2024—and its first fab began making chips at volume - URL: https://pvweekly.com/tsmc-arizona-final-award-first-fab-production/ - Published: 2026-10-27T19:29:57.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-27T19:29:57.000Z - Description: 2024 archive · The $6.6 billion CHIPS agreement supported a three-fab plan, while the year’s operating milestone belonged to the first plant and its N4 process. - Author: PV Weekly Editorial - Tags: Industry, Archive 2024, #ledger-format, #archive-backfill-20261027 **2024 archive** · November 15, 2024Reporting prepared October 22, 2026\. This retrospective describes events and expectations from the period covered.[Browse the archive](https://pvweekly.com/archive/) TSMC's first Arizona fab crossed an operating threshold during the same quarter that its federal support became final. In November 2024, the Commerce Department awarded the company up to $6.6 billion in direct CHIPS funding. In a January 2025 earnings call, TSMC confirmed that high-volume production had begun at the first plant in the final quarter of 2024. Those two developments answered different questions. The award established the federal incentive agreement after an April preliminary memorandum and government due diligence. Production demonstrated that a factory was making chips through a qualified manufacturing process, beyond the engineering-wafer stage. Neither development meant the full Arizona campus was complete. The agreement supported the investment plan then on record: more than $65 billion across three new fabs in Phoenix. Its direct funding would be disbursed against project milestones. Commerce also identified up to $5 billion in proposed loans, a separate financing category rather than an additional grant. That structure is essential to reading the headline number. A finalized award could support construction, production and commercial progress over time. It did not imply that the entire $6.6 billion had arrived in TSMC's bank account on November 15 or that all three plants were already supplying customers. ## What was actually running The first fab's production used N4 process technology. TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei told investors on January 16, 2025, that the company had advanced the production schedule following successful engineering-wafer results. He reported yield comparable with TSMC's fabs in Taiwan. Yield matters because a factory's output must meet product requirements, not simply pass through expensive equipment. Comparable yield was evidence, as reported by management, that the transferred process could deliver usable chips at a similar rate. It was not a disclosed Arizona shipment total, nor a finding that manufacturing costs were identical across locations. The timing also updated the public schedule. The federal award materials had described first-fab high-volume production as due in the first half of 2025\. TSMC's subsequent account placed the start in late 2024\. A retrospective should preserve both dates: the expectation when the award was announced and the operating result later confirmed. More advanced process plans belonged to subsequent fabs. The award-era project profile described the second plant's 3-nanometer technology and the third plant's 2-nanometer and A16 technologies. Their schedules extended later into the decade. Those capabilities should not be attached to the first fab's 2024 output simply because they appeared in the same investment package. ## A wafer fab still needed the rest of the supply chain Another 2024 agreement showed the next industrial task. In October, Amkor and TSMC signed a memorandum of understanding for advanced packaging and testing in Arizona. TSMC planned to obtain services from Amkor's proposed Peoria facility, particularly for customers using its Phoenix wafer fabs. The agreement connected two different manufacturing activities. Producing chips on wafers is one stage; packaging and testing prepare them for use in electronic products. Locating both in Arizona could shorten the chain, but the memorandum concerned a planned packaging facility rather than an operating counterpart ready in 2024. The year's result was thus substantial and bounded. The United States had a finalized incentive agreement for a major advanced-chip manufacturing program, and its first Arizona fab had reached volume production. The remaining fabs and local packaging capacity were still projects to execute, each with milestones of its own. ## Sources - [Biden-Harris Administration Announces CHIPS Incentives Award with TSMC Arizona](https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/11/biden-harris-administration-announces-chips-incentives-award-tsmc-arizona?ref=pvweekly.com) — National Institute of Standards and Technology / U.S. Department of Commerce · 2024-11-15. - [TSMC Arizona](https://www.nist.gov/chips/tsmc-arizona-phoenix?ref=pvweekly.com) — National Institute of Standards and Technology. - [Fourth-quarter 2024 earnings-call transcript](https://investor.tsmc.com/chinese/encrypt/files/encrypt%5Ffile/reports/2025-01/84aeb15bbe33894365d33f52e027c5268ba95dcf/TSMC%204Q24%20Transcript.pdf?ref=pvweekly.com) — TSMC / Refinitiv · 2025-01-16. - [Amkor and TSMC to Expand Partnership and Collaborate on Advanced Packaging in Arizona](https://ir.amkor.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amkor-and-tsmc-expand-partnership-and-collaborate-advanced?ref=pvweekly.com) — Amkor Technology · 2024-10-03.