Why is Apple willing to pay as much as 50 percent more to have TSMC manufacture its chips in Arizona? One possibility is a corporate tax break.
Apple CEO Tim Cook at the opening ceremony of TSMC's Arizona fabs. (Source: Apple)
What’s at stake:
TSMC’s Arizona fabs are often portrayed as a necessity to help TSMC achieve much-needed global diversity in manufacturing. Meanwhile, Apple plays patriot by investing in “a stronger, brighter future” for America. To accept that picture as a reality is naïve. The real issue is what price the U.S. government will pay to curry favor with Tim Cook and Morris Chang during a must-win economic war with China.
The opening ceremony of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC)’s first Arizona fab in December was, by any industry’s standard, an epoch-making event.