President Trump on Monday said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, will spend $100 billion in the United States over the next four years to expand its production capacity and bring its most advanced semiconductor processes to its operations in Arizona.

The investment will allow TSMC to begin making artificial intelligence and smartphone chips in Arizona, Mr. Trump said.

With the commitment, TSMC brings its planned total spending in the United States to $165 billion. The money will expand the company’s footprint in Arizona from three manufacturing plants to six, add 25,000 jobs and create a research and development center to develop future production processes.

TSMC’s expansion comes after years of work to rev up domestic manufacturing of semiconductors. For more than five years, Washington officials have been concerned that TSMC’s dominance of the chip industry had created a national security risk. They feared that the United States could lose access to those advanced chips, which were produced in Taiwan, because Beijing wants to reclaim the island as part of China.

The previous Trump administration began to lobby TSMC to build plants in the United States. The Biden administration advanced those efforts by passing the CHIPS Act, a bipartisan bill that provided $39 billion in federal funding for the construction of new and expanded manufacturing facilities to make the tiny electronics that power everything from cars to iPads.

During a White House event, Mr. Trump said that TSMC’s investment would reduce America’s national security risk and encourage other companies to make more of their products in the United States.

“Semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st century economy, and really without the semiconductors, there is no economy,” Mr. Trump said, adding that “we must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here in American factories, with American skill and American labor.”

Appearing alongside Mr. Trump, C.C. Wei, TSMC’s chief executive, said the company would begin making A.I. chips and smartphone chips in the United States. He added that the factory expansion had been supported by American customers, including Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm and Broadcom.

Mr. Trump said the investment would help TSMC avoid tariffs of 25 percent or more on chips manufactured in Taiwan. Since taking office in January, he had threatened tariffs of 100 percent on Taiwanese chips and criticized the CHIPS Act for failing to get companies like TSMC to make more chips domestically.

Since Mr. Trump took office in January, TSMC and Taiwanese officials have been scrambling to respond to his tariff threats. In January, Mr. Wei met with Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, about investments that TSMC could make. They explored the possibility of TSMC’s investing in the U.S. chipmaker, Intel, in a deal that would see it take over the Silicon Valley icon’s manufacturing operations. Taiwanese officials also traveled to Washington and floated deals to invest in the United States.

The investment more than doubles TSMC’s commitment to the United States and increases the capabilities of the chips it produces in Arizona.

Under the CHIPS Act, TSMC had committed to invest $65 billion to build three factories in Arizona. The production process it had committed to bringing to the United States is a legacy technology that makes less sophisticated chips than the ones it produces in Taiwan. It received $6.6 billion in federal funding to support the project.

With its appearance on Monday, TSMC will become the latest in a string of companies to visit the White House and make investment commitments. In January, OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank promised to spend $500 billion on data centers over the next four years. Last month, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, met with Mr. Trump before the company committed to spending $500 billion over four years, with some of that support going to a new factory in Houston to make artificial intelligence servers.

“They’re coming here in huge size because they want to be in the greatest market in the world, and they want to avoid the tariffs,” Mr. Lutnick said at the event on Monday. “If they’re not here, they’d have to suffer.”

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Broadcom has been closely examining Intel’s chip design and marketing business, the Journal reported, adding that the company had discussed a potential bid with its advisers but would likely only proceed if it found a partner for Intel’s manufacturing business.

Intel Executive Chairman Frank Yeary has been leading discussions with possible suitors and the Trump administration, which is concerned about a company seen critical to national security. REUTERS

TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has separately studied controlling some or all of Intel’s chip plants, potentially as part of an investor consortium or other structure, the report said.

Broadcom and TSMC are not working together, and all of the talks so far are preliminary and largely informal, the Journal added.

Intel’s interim executive chairman, Frank Yeary, has been leading the discussions with possible suitors and Trump administration officials, who are concerned about the fate of a company seen as critical to national security, the report said.

Yeary has been telling individuals close to him that he is most focused on maximizing value for Intel shareholders, the report added.

Intel, Broadcom, TSMC and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has looked at controlling all or some of Intel’s plant. AFP via Getty Images

A White House official told Reuters on Friday that President Trump’s administration might not support Intel’s US chip factories being operated by a foreign entity after Bloomberg reported that TSMC was considering taking a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at Trump’s request.

The White House official said the Trump administration supported foreign companies investing and building in the US but was “unlikely” to support a foreign firm operating Intel’s factories.

Bloomberg reported that Trump’s team raised the idea of a deal between the two firms in recent meetings with officials from TSMC who were receptive, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Broadcom has been examining Intel’s chip design and marketing business. NurPhoto via Getty Images

Intel was among the largest beneficiaries of the US push to onshore critical chip manufacturing led by the Biden administration.

The US Commerce Department said in November it was finalizing a $7.86 billion government subsidy for Intel. The company is one of a few chipmakers that design and manufacture semiconductors.

TSMC boasts a market valuation about eight times larger than that of Intel. The Taiwanese company’s customers include AI chip leader Nvidia and AMD, which is Intel’s fierce rival in PC and server markets.

Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who was ousted last year, set sky-high expectations for Intel’s manufacturing and AI capabilities among major clients but fell short, leading to the chipmaker losing or canceling contracts, Reuters reported previously.

Intel’s shares lost about 60% of their value last year as its capital-intensive bid to bolster manufacturing – a strategy championed by Gelsinger – strained the company’s cash flow and ultimately led to it cutting about 15% of its workforce

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Intel, a fallen Silicon Valley icon trying to restore its reputation as America’s most prominent semiconductor company, is working with the Trump administration on a plan to turn over the operation of its chip-making plants to a giant Taiwanese rival.

Over the past few months, Frank Yeary, the interim executive chairman of Intel, has spoken with administration officials and leaders of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company about a deal that would separate Intel’s ailing manufacturing business from its semiconductor design and product business, according to four people with knowledge of the plan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

TSMC, which produces an estimated 90 percent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, would assume control of Intel’s manufacturing business and take a majority stake in the business alongside a consortium of investors that could include private equity firms and other tech companies, the four people said.

The Trump administration has encouraged TSMC to do the deal. Howard Lutnick, President Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, has been involved in the conversations and considers them one of the most consequential challenges of his new job, two of the people familiar with the discussions said.

It’s not clear how much of Intel’s manufacturing business TSMC would take over or how much money the Taiwanese company would invest. The deal could be limited to Intel’s domestic plants, in states including Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, or also include facilities in countries like Ireland and Israel, the people said.

Intel’s business prospects soured after it failed to develop smartphone and artificial intelligence chips. Despite the government’s best efforts to revive the company by promising it billions of dollars of subsidies through the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act, Intel has continued to struggle.

Intel and TSMC declined to comment. Mr. Lutnick did not respond to a request for comment.

Late last year, Intel’s board approached TSMC to gauge its interest in some sort of partnership, two of the people familiar with the talks said. In January, TSMC’s chief executive, C.C. Wei, met separately with Mr. Lutnick and Mr. Yeary to discuss how a tie-up might work.

Mr. Yeary has been speaking to Mr. Lutnick regularly about the idea since then, three of these people said. The Intel chairman’s interest in cleaving the company has also opened the door for suitors interested in acquiring Intel’s product business, including Qualcomm. A Qualcomm spokeswoman declined to comment.

Some details of the discussions were previously reported by Digitimes, a Taiwanese news outlet, and Bloomberg.

The question now is whether the Trump administration thinks an ailing national champion like Intel is better off in the hands of a foreign company or if the administration needs to search for another solution.

“Even with potential U.S. government support from the CHIPS Act and officials eager to see the firm rebound and lead the renaissance of advanced manufacturing in the U.S., the road ahead will be tough,” said Paul Triolo, a partner at Albright Stonebridge Group who tracks the industry.

Hanging over the negotiations are questions about Mr. Trump’s approach to the chips industry and Taiwan, which is sharply different from former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s strategy. Mr. Trump has criticized the Biden administration’s investments in domestic chip manufacturing, threatened to impose tariffs on foreign-made chips, accused Taiwan of stealing the semiconductor industry away from the United States and questioned U.S. military support for the island, which is seeking to defend itself against Beijing’s encroachment.

In remarks to Republican lawmakers in late January, Mr. Trump said a significant tariff, not subsidies, was all that was needed to force chip companies back to the United States.

“We want them to come back, and we don’t want to give them billions of dollars like this ridiculous program that Biden has,” the president said.

In his Jan. 29 Senate confirmation hearing, Mr. Lutnick appeared to walk a careful line on the CHIPS program. He described it as “necessary and important” and a “down payment” on bringing manufacturing back to the United States. But Mr. Lutnick refused to commit outright to honoring contracts that companies had already signed with the government.

To placate Mr. Trump, Taiwanese officials and businesspeople have been cultivating ties with people in his orbit, floating new deals in the gas sector and trying to explain how Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing benefits the United States.

Taiwanese officials are also monitoring the talks over Intel’s future. For Taiwan, TSMC’s dominance of advanced chip manufacturing has become what some commentators call a “silicon shield” that deters military action by China and encourages support from the United States.

Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, said on Friday that his government would work with the island’s semiconductor companies to develop a strategy addressing Mr. Trump’s grievances while protecting Taiwan’s role in the chip sector.

“Taiwan’s government will be in mutual contact and discussions with the semiconductor sector to formulate the right strategy, and then there’ll be further deliberation over the proposals with the United States,” Mr. Lai said in a news conference.

TSMC could address Mr. Trump’s demands by simply building more manufacturing capacity in the United States, said Stacy Rasgon, a semiconductor analyst at Bernstein Research. TSMC, which received up to $6.6 billion in grants from the CHIPS Act, is building three factories in Arizona and has the ability to expand there.

The idea of breaking up Intel speaks to how much the company’s fortunes have changed. Founded in 1968, it became the world’s most valuable semiconductor company by designing and manufacturing chips for personal computers and data centers. But the company has struggled in recent years to innovate and ceded ground to rivals like Nvidia, the dominant maker of A.I. chips.

Pat Gelsinger, who was named Intel’s chief executive in 2021, promised to turn the company around by reinvigorating its manufacturing business, but the effort faltered. In November, Intel’s board forced Mr. Gelsinger to resign.

Intel’s manufacturing business, which it calls Intel Foundry, reported an operating loss of $13.4 billion in 2024 as sales from customers decreased 60 percent. Last year, the company said it planned to make the business an independent subsidiary.

With Intel’s stock price down nearly 50 percent over the past year, splitting Intel could make it vulnerable to a takeover, said Patrick Moorhead, founder of Moor Insights and Strategy, a tech research firm.

“Intel as we know it would cease to exist,” he said. “It would be the absolute end of an era.”

Chris Buckley contributed reporting from Taipei, Taiwan.

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