Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said it is preparing for a faster upgrade of its Arizona plant’s technology to the advanced 2-nanometer process, and the chip maker is close to securing a second large plot of land near the current site in order to expand the U.S. plant’s capacity. “We continue to speed up our capacity expansion in Arizona. We are making tangible progress,” TSMC Chair and CEO C.C. Wei said during a conference call after the world’s largest chip maker, whose major customers include Nvidia and Apple, reported a 39% jump in net profit. Wei didn’t provide a timeframe for the U.S. plant’s faster technology upgrade. The additional land in Arizona will provide the company with more flexibility to respond to “very strong multi-year AI-related demand,” he said. TSMC’s Arizona plant began production last year, and the company said earlier this year that it would invest $100 billion to expand its manufacturing in the U.S.—in addition to the $65 billion investment it had announced earlier. TSMC’s U.S. expansion comes at a time when the global semiconductor industry is dealing with new challenges stemming from geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing. While U.S. export controls have limited China’s access to Nvidia’s advanced chips, China is also trying to use more domestic chips produced by Chinese manufacturers in order to reduce its dependence on Nvidia. Wei said he is confident that TSMC will achieve robust growth even if China’s market opportunity becomes limited. “If the China market is not available, I still think AI’s growth will be very dramatic,” he said. focustaiwan.tw/business/2... #Taipei Tech Forum