It's amazing how much can change in five years. Back in early 2020, TSMC Arizona announced that it would invest in the American semiconductor industry, starting with $12 billion to build a semiconductor fabrication plant in Phoenix. In the years since, the giant's commitment grew to a whopping $65 billion, making its plan to build three advanced semiconductor fabrication facilities on its 1,129-acre lot in northern Phoenix one of the largest foreign direct investments in a greenfield project in the history of the United States.
The company made the move in concert with the United States government, which is working to increase the nation's production of semiconductor chips. In November 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce revealed a $6.6 billion grant agreement with TSMC Arizona via the CHIPS and Science Act, a 2022 bill designed to fund and facilitate historic investments in technologies that will restore the U.S.'s place in the semiconductor industry.
"The leading-edge chips that will be manufactured in Arizona are foundational to the United States' technological and economic leadership in the 21st century," U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said.
But that's just the beginning of the story, as TSMC Arizona's innovation has inspired others to invest in the southwestern city.
Breaking New Ground
At the top of 2026, developers will begin construction on Halo Vista, a city within a city that will form a literal halo around TSMC Arizona's Phoenix campus. At 2,300 acres and $7 billion, the project will support the company's operations and more. Phoenix City Council authorized the development at the northwest corner of Interstate 17 and Loop 303 in December 2024.
Halo Vista will be a walkable, mixed-use commercial park with about 12 million square feet of industrial space called The Forge; 3.5 million square feet dedicated to flexible technology and office space called the Sonoran Oasis Research and Technology Park; and another 500,000 square feet to house nearly 9,000 residential dwellings including single-family homes and apartment buildings, several retail outlets and restaurants, medical and educational spaces, and even an auto mall. When it's fully developed, the community is expected to support 62,000 jobs, making the area an industry and research hub befitting companies like TSMC Arizona.
Mack Real Estate Group and McCourt Partners entity Biscuit Flats Dev LLC bought the land for $56.28 million at an Arizona State Land Department auction in May 2024, following years of collaboration and planning. Per its agreement with ASLD, the companies can directly develop about 600 acres of the land themselves, control the sale of land to other developers, and be responsible for infrastructure improvements across the entire project.
Mack Real Estate Group CEO Richard Mack calls Halo Vista one of the most significant industrial investments in U.S. history and is excited about the additional growth it will spark. "Together with ASLD and McCourt Partners, we are privileged to help in the building of a new type of city that both supports and leverages the domestic and international digital transformation enabled by TSMC's new semiconductor manufacturing campus," said Mack.
Building Community
In fact, TSMC Arizona was an inspiration for the project. "Making TSMC happy here and increasing their productivity is so important for the U.S. to demonstrate that re-shoring works and that we can deliver domestically the most important products in the world," Mack pointed out.
In Taiwan, TSMC campuses are built in science and technology parks. So Mack's team journeyed across the ocean to see exactly how the company interacts with its environment in other settings. "We did go to Taiwan to see the area in which the TSMC factories are located right now and to kind of learn from what was going on there and to think about how things are different in the U.S."
It's also vital to the team that the new development, which is still in the early design phase, reflects the uniqueness of Phoenix. "This is the first time that we're centering a live-work environment around a manufacturing business. We still want it to conform within the Phoenix and Arizona lifestyle," Mack said. "It's not just a science park, and not just a manufacturing district: It's a community. It's a city within a city. This is a leading-edge, creative, and inviting community surrounding the most leading-edge company in the world."
Phoenix officials are excited about the development, noting that it's a perfect fit for the city. "We work with national site selectors weekly and some of the comments that we've received are, 'Hey, this is the best shovel-ready site in the United States,'" said Nathan Wright, deputy director of business attraction and development for Phoenix.
And the impact extends far beyond the confines of the development's acreage. "All of this is in District 1 and it is fabulous to have it there, but the impact is not just going to be on District 1, it will be on the entire city as well as the region," said District 1 Councilwoman Ann O'Brien. "I know that Peoria and Glendale and those all around us and all across the state are benefiting from this."
In December 2024, the Phoenix City Council approved a deal to reimburse the developer team for the costs of installing public infrastructure, from paving streets to wiring traffic lights to commissioning public art and laying water lines.
Looking to the Future
TSMC Arizona's first semiconductor fabrication in Phoenix is expected to reach high-volume production in early 2025, making the most advanced chips produced on U.S. soil, which power 12,000-plus different electronic devices, including smartphones, internet-connected appliances, autonomous vehicles, space stations, and compute-heavy applications driven by artificial intelligence. Its second fab is currently under construction, and the third is slated to open its doors in 2030. In all, it will employ about 6,000 people.
"We are honored to support our customers who have been pioneers in mobile, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing, whether in chip design, hardware systems or software, algorithms, and large language models," said TSMC CEO Dr. C.C. Wei. "They are the innovators driving demand for the most advanced silicon that TSMC can provide. As their foundry partner, we will help them unleash their innovations by increasing capacity for leading-edge technology through TSMC Arizona. We are thrilled by the progress of our Arizona site to date and are committed to its long-term success."
While Halo Vista won't be exclusive for members of the TSMC Arizona community, it will provide a supportive ecosystem for the people who work there. Mack thinks of it as a "sub-city" that will accommodate the 24/7 operation of the three plants and attract other people and companies to the area. "Our vision is for chip designers and engineering students, not just suppliers and manufacturers, to co-locate here, to create a value-added ecosystem beyond just what it takes to build chips, and that's how we're going to create more value in the Phoenix economy," Mack said.
And TSMC's position in the middle of it all is a draw. "TSMC's Phoenix semiconductor fabrication campus is a tremendous economic driver with local, national, and global significance," Mack continued. "TSMC is quite simply one of the most important companies in the world. TSMC produces the chips that allow for exponential innovation and for the continued development of artificial intelligence. Having that type of an anchor just affords you synergies that you just don't have any place else in the United States."
