As we reported this morning, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn and its Japanese subsidiary Sharp are considering setting up an $8 billion LCD panel production plant in the United States. According to another report, semiconductor maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) has also expressed interest in taking advantage of business-friendly incentives proposed by incoming U.S. President Trump.
As a reminder, TSMC currently churns out Apple-designed silicon for latest iOS devices and is also said to have landed a lucrative contract to build next-generation A11 chips for future Phones and iPads.
TSMC chairman Morris Chang said his company “has not ruled out” building a wafer fab in U.S. as part of President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to bring outsourced manufacturing back to the country. However, producing chips in U.S. “may not necessarily be a good thing,” he said yesterday during a conference call with investors.
TSMC said during the call that its revenues from customers based in North America accounted for 65 percent of its total wafer revenues in 2016. The firm expects its proportion of U.S. revenues to “still stay above 60 percent in 2017,” Chang said.
Separately, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn indicated today that its weighing its options regarding building an LCD manufacturing plant in the U.S. through its Japanese subsidiary Sharp and in partnership with SoftBank’s investment fund.
Source: DigiTimes