According to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, TSMC has commenced the production of chips at its Fab 21 facility near Phoenix, Arizona, utilizing its 4nm-class process technology. This milestone represents the first time that such an advanced production node has been manufactured within the United States. The official confirmation comes after months of rumors suggesting that the factory was mass-producing chips for Apple.

Raimondo emphasized that this achievement marks a significant step for the U.S. semiconductor industry, with chips produced on American soil and by American workers, and that the yield and quality are on par with those from Taiwan. The chips being produced include the A16 Bionic system-on-chip for Apple's iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, the S9 system-in-package for Apple's smartwatches, and an AMD Ryzen 9000-series CPU.

The TSMC Arizona project is a crucial part of the U.S. initiative to produce 20% of the world's most advanced logic chips by 2030. Supported by the CHIPS and Science Act, which provided TSMC with $6.6 billion in grants and up to $5 billion in loan guarantees, the Fab 21 site is expected to require around $65 billion in funding to include three fab modules. The first phase will start mass production using 4nm and 5nm-class technologies, with future phases aiming to produce chips on 3nm and 2nm-class nodes.