Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is delaying construction of a second plant in Japan partly because it is pouring funds more quickly into U.S. expansion ahead of potential Trump administration tariffs, people familiar with the plans said.
The revised schedule is the latest example of how President Trump’s aggressive stance on trade is pulling some investment toward the U.S. at the expense of allies. Major technology companies have committed to expand U.S. production of artificial-intelligence servers that are currently made in places such as Mexico and Taiwan.
Many regions around the world are eager for more investment by TSMC, which serves clients such as Apple and Nvidia and has a market capitalization of nearly $1 trillion. The U.S., Japan, Europe and TSMC’s home base of Taiwan all see semiconductors as a strategic industry and have helped finance TSMC’s expansion.
However, the company is known for its meticulous approach to capital spending, and it is concerned about building more capacity than the market can bear, analysts said. Ensuring sufficient U.S. capacity is a priority because Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on imported chips.
TSMC said early last year that it would build a second plant in southern Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture, part of a $20 billion investment plan in the country that has brought in more than $8 billion in promised support from the Japanese government.
The first Japanese site started producing chips last fall for customers such as Toyota. Construction of the second plant was initially slated to start early this year. TSMC’s chairman, C.C. Wei, said in June that there would be a slight delay because of excessive car traffic in that region of Japan.
People familiar with TSMC’s plans said further delays to the second Japanese plant were likely and the timing of the construction start could no longer be forecast with accuracy.
The delay is a blow to Japan, whose economy is beginning to suffer from 25% tariffs Trump placed on imported autos and steel. Tokyo had hoped to reach an early trade deal with the U.S., but negotiations have bogged down and Trump in recent days has attacked what he described as Japan’s unwillingness to open its markets.
TSMC also began construction on its first European manufacturing facility in Germany in late 2024, with production targeted to begin by the end of 2027.
In March, TSMC’s Wei visited the White House and, standing alongside Trump, announced plans to invest at least $100 billion more in the U.S. over the next several years, on top of $65 billion in previously announced investments.
In April, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick visited Arizona for the groundbreaking of TSMC’s third chip-making facility in the Phoenix area.
TSMC’s Arizona factories are the only ones outside Taiwan that are designed to produce leading-edge chips for American tech giants such as Apple, Nvidia and AMD. That aligns with the push by both the Biden and Trump administrations for greater domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
Trump has called for semiconductors to be made in America, and his administration has opened a probe that could result in semiconductor tariffs.
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