Can someone tell me if there's actually any geographical sense in putting a fab in Arizona? I admit it seems like the height of madness to put a fab somewhere with so little water.
- Phoenix is in located inside a water district, meaning there are many restrictions on water usage and an extremely conservative approach to resource management. Fun fact, many of the wells in our area show increases in water [1] to the aquifer from the lows of the 70's/80's (meaning we are putting more water into the aquifer than we are taking out). Additionally, there is a large artificial lake reservoir and the central arizona project canal runs right by the site. Like others have mentioned, the vast majority of the water gets recycled.
- There is an existing high-tech manufacturing base (lots of aerospace, defense and semiconductor infrastructure).
- There is great transportation. There is a suitable airport (KDVT) ~5 miles from the new TSMC plant, which can accommodate jets capable of international flights (for example to taiwan) if they need to fly wafers to offsite packaging. Additionally, I10, I17 and I40 are all readily accessible.
- There is plenty of space for expansion. The site that TSMC located in has a massive amount of space for expansion, its essentially 5 minutes from town, but has miles of open area that can be utilized for future needs.
[1] - https://www.azwater.gov/gwsi/Hydrograph.aspx?SiteID=33384411...
Geologically stable and proximate to rail and truck junctures.
Apparently not if they need to build the rail and highway interchanges.
I think what happened is the politicians promised these things to chip manufacturers because they thought the buildout would be a formality. But political reality is taking those promises off the table.
They should build a fab in Michigan or Ontario. Labour is cheaper up in Canada, too.
A new diversion of that nature wouldn't be allowed.
Also, its in a water district, where we have really done a great job at managing our resources.
Check out some of the well data [1], [2], [3] since it is really eye opening what you can do with proper resource management.
1 - https://www.azwater.gov/gwsi/Hydrograph.aspx?SiteID=33424411...
2 - https://www.azwater.gov/gwsi/Hydrograph.aspx?SiteID=33384411...
3 - https://www.azwater.gov/gwsi/Hydrograph.aspx?SiteID=33375611...