MADE IN USA

Semiconductor giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (known as TSMC) is in the process of building a new $12 billion fabrication facility in Arizona… where it will produce 20,000 wafers every month.  The global semiconductor industry relies on TSMC to manufacture chips for just about any kind of electronics that we can imagine. 

The semiconductors that TSMC makes are used in smartphones, watches, laptops, game consoles, cars, and much more. Without them, these products simply couldn’t be manufactured. Likewise, prominent server manufacturer Supermicro just built a new manufacturing plant in the United States.  And we aren’t talking about small semiconductors here. 

Supermicro produces large server hardware that goes into data centers. It’s an intensive manufacturing process. And now it’s added a 200,000 square foot manufacturing building to its San Jose campus. Automotives are another industry where we’re seeing this manufacturing trend take place.  

Electric vehicle (EV) companies like Tesla and Lucid Motors have spent millions to expand their manufacturing hubs in the U.S. over the years. In fact, Tesla’s Nevada-based Gigafactory stands as one of the most robust manufacturing hubs in the entire world… and its Austin Gigafactory will soon expand to volume production of Tesla’s cars – and the upcoming Cybertruck. 

And even legacy automotive players are jumping in on this trend.  Just in October, Ford announced it would be building an $11.4 billion electric vehicle assembly plant in Tennessee and two EV battery factories in Kentucky.

Ford is also investing heavily in its other domestic plants in Michigan and Ohio, employing cutting-edge manufacturing processes like 3D printing to produce its components. I love what Ford is doing here.  It’s implementing a decentralized manufacturing model, where smaller, highly automated plants can produce goods closer to the markets they serve.  This approach is robust and far more efficient. And it’s also better from an environmental standpoint. 

That’s because it simplifies shipping and logistics, requiring the goods to travel far fewer miles. This is just the beginning. With the rise of technologies like 3D printing, we’re going to see more and more manufacturing plants for all kinds of products newly located close to their end markets. We’ll be able to create fully customizable products on demand.  And now these chips will start being made in the U.S.