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TSMC may have dodged Trump tariffs but lawsuit over ‘anti-American’ practices presses on

Semiconductor giant’s US$100 billion investment plan in the US has overshadowed a legal drama poised to play out in federal court next month

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A Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co factory under construction in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2022. Photo: Kyodo
Khushboo Razdanin Washington
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest producer of advanced semiconductors and a pivotal player in the geopolitical and technological competition between Washington and Beijing, may have dodged a tariff bullet by unveiling its largest-ever US investment this week.
TSMC’s decision to invest US$100 billion under a five-factory plan in Arizona over the next four years aligns with US President Donald Trump’s ‘Make-in-America’ mandate, allowing the company to avoid the threat of up to 100 per cent tariffs.
It is already building two more factories in Arizona with an investment of US$65 billion, US$6 billion of which came in subsidies from the Chips and Science Act of 2022. This is in addition to a semiconductor fabrication facility that late last year began mass production of 4-nanometre chips.

Yet news of the massive investment plan, together with a bewildering succession of tariff threats and retractions by Trump, has overshadowed a legal drama accusing the company of “anti-American” workforce practices, poised to play out in a US federal court starting next month.

The juggernaut that produces 90 per cent of the world’s most cutting-edge chips faces accusations ranging from discrimination and hostility towards “non-East Asian” staff to sexual misconduct.

TSMC has denied the allegations. Some of its employees in Arizona have supported the company’s stance, calling the claims false and having the potential to undermine its efforts to produce advanced chips in the US.

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