CALIFORNIA: Apple CEO Tim Cook said the tech giant will be using semiconductor chips made in the US for the first time in nearly a decade.
Cook made the announcement at Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC’s new Arizona plant’s opening ceremony Tuesday, according to Bloomberg. TSMC is a key chip supplier to Apple and its new plant in Phoenix, Arizona is its first major production facility in the US. Apple will be the facility’s “largest customer,” Cook tweeted on Tuesday. TSMC’s facilities in Arizona is seen as a win for the Biden administration — particularly, since the Taiwanese chipmaker said it would more than triple its planned investment into its Arizona facilities from $12 billion to $40 billion.
“American manufacturing is back, folks,” President Joe Biden said at the same TSMC event. Apple’s plans to source chips for its devices from TSMC’s Arizona plant marks a shift in strategy for the tech giant as it navigates geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing, and China’s strict COVID-19 containment measures.
In October, the US introduced export controls limiting sales of semiconductors which use US technology. The measures make it difficult for tech companies to buy chips made anywhere globally, as they could be built with US equipment.
Apple has also been grappling with Beijing’s draconian pandemic restrictions, which hit iPhone production at the facilities of its major supplier, Foxconn. – Agencies
