TSMC and Amkor to Collaborate on Chip Production in Arizona

TapTechNews October 4th news, the chip foundry TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) and the chip packaging company Amkor announced on Thursday that the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in chip production, packaging and testing in Arizona, USA.

In a press release, the two companies said that their factories in Arizona are very close and will speed up the entire chip manufacturing process. According to the agreement, TSMC will adopt the one-stop (Turnkey) advanced packaging and testing services provided by the new plant that Amkor plans to build in Peoria, Arizona. TSMC will use these services to support its customers, especially those who use TSMC's advanced wafer manufacturing facilities in Phoenix. The close cooperation between TSMC's front-end wafer manufacturing plant in Arizona and Amkor's nearby back-end packaging and testing plant will shorten the overall production cycle of the product.

Apple confirmed last year that Amkor will package the AppleSilicon chips produced in the nearby TSMC factory, which is part of the common aspiration to expand US manufacturing. Tech journalist Tim Culpan recently reported that TSMC's US factory has begun small-scale production of the A16 chip, which debuted in the iPhone 14 Pro model two years ago, and the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus models also use the A16 chip.

Apple previously confirmed that Amkor will invest about 2 billion US dollars (TapTechNews note: currently about 14.072 billion Chinese yuan) in this project and said it will hire more than 2000 people after the project is completed.