Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) is reportedly in talks with White House officials to discuss the possibility of opening a chip fab in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to Bloomberg, the company has met several times with U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, alongside state-owned investment firm MGX, discussing plans to invest and build a plant in the country. This site would be of similar scale and size to the one the chip maker is building in Arizona, but no further details have been publicly discussed yet.
This isn’t the first time that a chip maker has explored putting up a megafactory in the UAE — both Samsung and TSMC have each considered putting up their own facilities in the country in the third quarter of 2024, with senior executives from both companies visiting the area to start discussions. TSMC even went as far as starting talks with the Biden administration, which, unfortunately, led nowhere.
