TSMC, Intel, Samsung US Fab Investments: Policy Timeline

WASHINGTON, The CHIPS and Science Act (Pub.L. 117-167), signed August 9, 2022, allocated $39 billion in manufacturing incentives administered by the Commerce Department through NIST. Four companies, TSMC, Intel, Samsung, and Micron, have received or been awarded a combined $26 billion in direct grants. The fabs those grants are building represent the most consequential restructuring of domestic semiconductor capacity since the 1980s.

CHIPS Act Manufacturing Incentives: The Award Architecture

The $52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act divided its funding across three buckets: $39 billion for manufacturing incentives, $13.2 billion for research and workforce development, and $500 million for international technology security. NIST administers the incentive awards through a milestone-based disbursement structure: companies receive funding only after meeting construction and production benchmarks, not upfront.

As of early 2026, five major direct awards have been finalized. Intel received the largest at $7.86 billion, announced March 2024 and finalized in November 2024, covering facilities in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon. TSMC received $6.6 billion in direct grants plus $5 billion in loan guarantees for its Phoenix, Arizona campus. Samsung received an award of $4.745 billion for Taylor, Texas. Micron received $6.165 billion in December 2024 for DRAM manufacturing in Idaho and New York. GLOBALFOUNDRIES received $1.5 billion for its Malta, New York and Vermont facilities.

Disbursement lags awards. Intel, despite holding the largest award, had received only $2.2 billion, disbursed before January 2025, with $850 million in subsequent reimbursement claims pending as of mid-2025. The milestone structure means the federal government bears less risk if a recipient pauses or scales back construction, but it also means companies must finance early-stage build costs before federal reimbursements arrive.

The act also contains a guardrail provision: recipients that accept CHIPS incentives are prohibited from expanding leading-edge capacity in countries of concern, including China: for ten years. Intel, Samsung, and TSMC each operate China-based facilities, and each negotiated specific carve-outs for legacy-node maintenance during the award process. See U.S. Semiconductor Export Controls: Timeline and Current Restrictions for the parallel export control regime that shapes how that provision is enforced.

TSMC Arizona: America’s First Advanced Logic Fab

TSMC’s Fab 21 in Phoenix, Arizona is the only CHIPS Act facility currently in full-scale advanced logic production. Phase 1, manufacturing on TSMC’s N4P (4nm-class) process, entered volume production in the first half of 2025 and reached a 92 percent yield rate by December 2025, matching yield performance at TSMC’s Taiwan facilities. Apple committed to purchase more than 100 million chips from TSMC Arizona in 2026, making Fab 21 the first U.S. site to manufacture Apple A-series processor dies domestically.

Phase 2 construction is complete ahead of schedule. TSMC announced in January 2026 that equipment installation for 3nm production (N3E process) would begin in Q3 2026, with volume production targeted for 2027, roughly four quarters ahead of the original 2028 projection. The acceleration reflects faster-than-expected Phase 1 ramp and TSMC’s stated intent to qualify Arizona for leading-edge nodes in parallel with Taiwan.

Phase 3 is already underway. TSMC broke ground on a third fab building targeting 2nm (N2) and A16 (1.6nm-class) production, with a target date of 2029. TSMC also expanded its total Arizona investment commitment from $65 billion to $165 billion in March 2025, increasing the number of planned Phoenix campus fabs from three to six. That figure represents the single largest announced foreign direct investment in U.S. manufacturing history.

The scale expansion also reflects policy pressure. The CHIPS Act guardrails, combined with the Commerce Department’s October 2022 export control rules restricting advanced chip equipment sales to China, have created a structural incentive for TSMC to deepen U.S. capacity rather than expand in restricted geographies. The full details of how those export controls interact with CHIPS Act compliance obligations are covered in CHIPS Act: Semiconductor Investment and the Domestic Capacity Buildout.

Intel’s Bet on 18A and Ohio

Intel holds the largest CHIPS Act award at $7.86 billion, but faces the most complex execution challenge of any recipient. The award covers four U.S. sites: Fab 52 and Fab 62 in Chandler, Arizona (Intel 18A process, 1.8nm-equivalent); Fab 11X in Rio Rancho, New Mexico (specialty nodes); and the Ohio One campus in New Albany, Ohio (Intel 18A). Intel also secured $11 billion in CHIPS Act loan guarantees, bringing total federal support to roughly $19 billion.

The Ohio project has slipped materially. Intel originally targeted first production at the New Albany fabs for 2025. That date shifted to 2026, then to 2030 in a February 2025 announcement, driven by Intel’s financial restructuring, the company’s stock fell more than 50 percent between mid-2023 and mid-2025 while the broader semiconductor sector rose 120 percent. Intel invested over $1 billion in Ohio One construction in 2025 and maintained active site work, but the full two-fab build-out has been pushed into the early 2030s pending customer commitments for Intel Foundry Services capacity.

The Arizona 18A ramp is proceeding on a separate track. Intel 18A introduces backside power delivery (PowerVia) and gate-all-around (RibbonFET) transistors simultaneously: a dual-innovation risk that Intel’s process engineers have described as the most complex node transition in the company’s history. Risk production for external customers was targeted for 2025 at the Ronler Acres facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, with volume production at Chandler targeted for 2026. Intel has not publicly disclosed 18A yield rates for external customer qualification lots.

Intel’s Ohio dilemma is structural: the company must continue construction to remain eligible for CHIPS Act disbursements and avoid clawback provisions, but completing two leading-edge fabs in a region with no existing semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure requires capital Intel has been conserving through workforce reductions and asset reviews. Commerce Department officials have stated that construction milestones . not production milestones, govern disbursement for the early phases, giving Intel limited reprieve on the funding side even as production targets recede.

Samsung Taylor and the 2nm Race

Samsung’s Taylor, Texas facility in Williamson County received a CHIPS Act direct award of $4.745 billion against an expanded total investment now stated at $44 billion, up from the original $17 billion commitment at the time of award. The Taylor campus is planned to include two leading-edge logic fabs and a dedicated R&D fab, positioning it as Samsung Foundry’s primary U.S. production and development hub.

Construction of the first fab was reported at more than 90 percent complete as of mid-2025, with a completion target of October 2025. Volume production has been pushed to 2026, delayed from earlier projections of late 2024 and early 2025. The reason cited across multiple industry reports: insufficient customer commitments. Samsung Foundry has struggled to secure anchor customers for its SF2 (2nm gate-all-around) process technology, which competes directly against TSMC’s N2 for leading hyperscale and HPC workloads.

Samsung elected to upgrade the Taylor facility’s primary process target from 4nm (SF4) to 2nm (SF2) during the construction phase: a decision that shifted the facility’s customer profile from near-term fabless buyers toward longer-horizon hyperscale buyers. The upgrade aligns Taylor with Samsung’s strategic bet that 2nm gate-all-around will differentiate its foundry offering against TSMC’s N2, but it also extended the timeline to first revenue by approximately two years relative to original projections.

Texas state government has provided supplemental incentives. Governor Greg Abbott announced a Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund grant to Samsung Austin Semiconductor in 2025, adding state-level support on top of the federal CHIPS Act award. The combined federal-state incentive package positions Taylor as the largest semiconductor manufacturing investment in Texas history by total capital commitment.

What’s Next: Production Timelines and Policy Conditions

The CHIPS Act manufacturing incentive program will not produce a normalized domestic advanced-logic supply before 2027. TSMC Arizona Phase 1, the fastest project from groundbreaking to volume production, took approximately three years and represents the ceiling, not the floor, of execution speed. Intel Ohio and Samsung Taylor both lag that pace by two to four years on current projections.

Micron’s DRAM program adds memory manufacturing to the domestic picture. The $6.165 billion award funds two Idaho fabs in Boise and two New York fabs in Clay, Onondaga County. Micron has accelerated Boise construction and redirected approximately $1.2 billion in CHIPS Act funding from New York to Idaho, with the first Idaho fab achieving key construction milestones in 2025. The Clay, New York first fab has been re-timed to begin construction in Q2 2026, with production targeted for 2030, delayed from an original 2028 target. Micron expanded its total U.S. investment commitment to $150 billion in June 2025, adding a second Idaho fab and advanced packaging capacity.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ $1.5 billion award for Malta, New York: producing at 12nm to 180nm for defense, automotive, and IoT customers — remains the only CHIPS Act investment explicitly targeting legacy-node domestic capacity. Malta has been designated a trusted foundry source under National Defense Authorization Act procurement requirements, positioning it as the onshore supply point for defense-grade semiconductors that cannot be sourced from Taiwan or Korean fabs under national security procurement protocols.

The political environment has introduced disbursement risk. The Trump administration, which took office in January 2025, has been slower to release CHIPS Act payments than the Biden Commerce Department that originated the awards. Intel’s $850 million in pending reimbursement claims had not been processed as of mid-2025. Commerce Department officials have confirmed the milestone structure remains intact, but industry groups have flagged disbursement delays as a schedule risk for companies with constrained balance sheets.