According to the Nikkei Asian Review, TSMC is forming a team of more than 600 employees including engineers and executives to prepare for its first US factory.

TSMC Chairman Liu Deyin told Nikkei that TSMC will start building a $12 billion chip factory in Arizona next year. A working group composed of more than 300 existing employees and management personnel will be sent to the factory, they have experience in the development and production of 5nm chips.

According to people familiar with the matter, the United States has agreed to provide TSMC with the required work visa.

In addition, TSMC is recruiting 300 fresh graduates and young engineers who have one to two years of work experience and are qualified to work in the United States. Liu Deyin also said that TSMC plans to bring these newly hired employees to Tainan for about a year of training, and then to Arizona.

Liu Deyin said that all communication and training for this project will be conducted in English to facilitate coordination of future work.

Members of the US Congress are finalizing $25 billion in tax incentives to revive local chip production. Although South Korea and Taiwan of China currently control a considerable portion of advanced chip manufacturing capabilities, the US chip industry is still the world's largest in terms of revenue. According to data from IC Insights, Asia has become the world's most important chip manufacturing region, accounting for 75% of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity. Taiwan's output alone accounts for 22% of the world's total output, most of which is contributed by TSMC.

The United States also mentioned security concerns in the process of promoting the development of its own semiconductor industry. TSMC is a key chip supplier for Apple and most chip and technology giants such as Intel, Qualcomm and Google, but it also produces chips for the American chip design company Xilinx for the F-35 fighter.

Nikkei previously reported that the U.S. government has required TSMC to produce military chips in the United States to ensure that the production of high-security components is not interfered by China.

As TSMC’s main competitor in the foundry field, Samsung is planning to expand its chip production capacity in Texas to attract American customers such as Apple, Blackberry, Qualcomm and Tesla. Before 2016, Samsung had been sharing Apple iPhone processor chip orders with TSMC. Samsung is also the world's largest manufacturer of memory chips, supplying most equipment manufacturers.

In May of this year, TSMC announced its intention to establish a 5-nanometer process chip factory in Arizona, USA. In November, TSMC established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Taiwan, China with a paid-in capital of US$3.5 billion. At the end of November, officials in Phoenix, Arizona approved a development agreement with TSMC, which will provide the city with US$205 million in funding for infrastructure construction such as roads and water supply. On December 22, China's Taiwanese regulator approved TSMC's investment in the United States.

TSMC said that the Arizona plant will start construction next year and will start production in 2024. The factory will eventually directly create more than 1,600 jobs, and indirectly create thousands of jobs for the semiconductor ecosystem. Many TSMC suppliers, such as semiconductor equipment manufacturer Fanxuan System Technology Co., Ltd., and leading chip material supplier Entegris, have expressed plans to expand in Arizona.

TSMC’s official website shows that the company is hiring R&D engineers, process engineers, equipment engineers, IT software engineers, and other positions required to operate an advanced chip factory.