Wendell Huang, chief financial officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), during a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, July 16, 2026.
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TSMC is looking to increase capacity at its Arizona plant as the company continues to see a “multi-year megatrend in demand” from its customers, Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang told CNBC.
TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., is increasing its mega-investment in Arizona by committing an additional $100 billion to aggressively expand its chip manufacturing footprint in the US amid several years of rising structural demand for AI.
The new commitment brings TSMC’s total investment pipeline in Arizona to $265 billion and underscores a massive AI-driven capacity expansion that also resulted in an upward revision of the company’s total capital expenditures to $60 billion to $64 billion.
In an interview with CNBC’s Emily Tan, TSMC’s Huang said the new investments were driven by strong customer demand in the US market and strong government support.
“We see highly structured, multi-year demand and have no plans to leave food on the table for others,” Huang told CNBC. “As long as the megatrend is correct, we can continue to offer our shareholders profitable growth,” he said.
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Increasing demand
To meet increasing customer demand, TSMC is aggressively optimizing its peak capabilities, including quickly transitioning its 5-nanometer capacity to the advanced 3-nanometer node to support customers, Huang said.
The nanometer count refers to the size of each individual transistor on a chip. The smaller the transistor, the more of them can be accommodated on a single semiconductor. Typically, reducing nanometer size can lead to more powerful and efficient chips.
As for TSMC’s U.S. expansion, phase one with 4-nanometer technology is already operational, the CFO told CNBC.
“In the next few quarters, it will get bigger and bigger,” Huang said, calling the 2-nanometer technology the company’s newest revenue driver in the third quarter, after generating revenue for the first time in the second quarter.
The cost of building factories in the US is four to five times higher than in Taiwan. However, Huang said that while the initial dilution will increase as the scale of overseas operations increases, the expansion will ultimately further promote the development of the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem.
“It will be both the front-end wafer fab and the back-end advanced packaging fab,” Huang said of deploying the new $100 billion investment.
Ahead of the earnings release, the company ended Thursday’s session up 1.23%, but reversed on Friday and closed down 7.29%. The stock is up around 48% since the beginning of the year.
Reacting to the company’s share price performance, Huang said TSMC has no control over financial markets. “What we can do is really focus on the fundamentals of our business,” he said, adding that while the sector is facing significant component price increases, the company sees minimal impact due to its strategic focus on the high-end market.
Aside from market factors, TSMC also manages its regulatory footprint. Regarding China, Huang said TSMC continues to comply with all export controls while serving its Chinese customers, which account for about 8% of total revenue.
The chip manufacturer is expanding its focus on future growth drivers. Regarding the prospects of physical AI, he added that the company’s recent joint venture with Sony for image sensors is part of its strategic commitment to support long-term customer growth in specialty technologies.
—CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this story.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/20/tsmc-arizona-fab-capacity-ai-chip-demand.html
