TSMC Is Weighing a Second US Chip Hub in Texas Worth Over $265 Billion

TSMC is reportedly eyeing a six-fab campus near Dallas, a buildout that could outspend its entire $165 billion Arizona commitment. The scouting comes months after the company locked in a 15% price hike that every AI chip buyer now has to cover.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is weighing a second major US manufacturing hub in Texas. That's according to a report from Economic Daily News on September 29, picked up and confirmed in substance by TrendForce. The plan under discussion could eventually include as many as six advanced wafer fabs built around the Dallas area. Total investment could top $265 billion: that would exceed the $165 billion TSMC has already committed to Arizona. Nothing is final. TSMC's board hasn't approved capital outlays for a Texas site, the company hasn't notified suppliers to start preparing, and it hasn't filed anything with the Taiwan Stock Exchange or the SEC describing a Texas plan.

Still, the timing tells you something. TSMC doesn't float a quarter-trillion-dollar expansion idea through friendly local press by accident. It's doing so weeks after telling customers it's raising 3-nanometer wafer prices by as much as 15% in the second half of 2026, with another 5% to 10% increase reportedly coming in 2027. TrendForce reported those numbers back in May, and TechNode confirmed the 15% figure in June. Today, a 3nm wafer runs roughly $20,000. Nobody who needs that wafer has much room to say no.

The Arizona buildout is already enormous. TSMC's investment there grew from an initial $65 billion to $165 billion, funding what will eventually be 12 US semiconductor and packaging facilities in the Phoenix area. Both AMD and Nvidia have begun producing chips at the Arizona site, and TSMC has reportedly discussed bringing Nvidia's Blackwell-generation AI chips there too. The company has also collected $6.6 billion in CHIPS Act grants and up to $5 billion in federal loans to help pay for it, plus a 25% tax credit on qualifying capital spending.

A Texas campus would be a different animal. More advanced nodes from the start, built closer to where Nvidia, AMD, and a growing list of cloud companies building custom AI chips actually want their most cutting-edge silicon made. Dallas also sits near Samsung's existing Taylor, Texas fab, meaning TSMC's move would put it on the same turf as its biggest foundry rival just as Samsung ramps its own 2-nanometer line. That's not a coincidence worth ignoring.

The demand behind all of this is real, not speculative. TSMC's high-performance computing segment, the one anchored by AI accelerators, grew 20% sequentially last quarter and now makes up 66% of the company's total wafer revenue. For full-year 2026, TSMC raised its revenue growth outlook to above 40% and lifted its capital expenditure guidance to a range of $60 billion to $64 billion, up from $52 billion to $56 billion previously. Gross margin is actually expected to dip slightly, to 65% to 67%, because ramping 2-nanometer production costs so much upfront. That's a company spending aggressively because it believes the AI buildout still has years to run, not quarters.

Here's the thing about TSMC's position right now: it's not just benefiting from the AI boom, it's setting the terms of it. When one company controls the overwhelming majority of advanced-node capacity that Nvidia, AMD, Apple, and a dozen AI chip startups all depend on, a price increase isn't really optional for the buyer. It's a toll. The Texas expansion, if it happens, puts that power on American soil, wrapped in the reshoring narrative that both Washington and Taipei have reasons to like.

That's also exactly why skepticism about an AI spending bubble hasn't slowed TSMC down. Hyperscalers and chip designers keep signing multi-year capacity commitments regardless of what happens to AI stock valuations month to month. Losing your slot in TSMC's advanced-node queue is a far bigger risk to your business than overpaying for wafers. Frankly, that's the whole story in one sentence: everyone else in the AI supply chain is betting on demand, and TSMC is the one company that gets to collect regardless of who wins.

A decision on Texas, if TSMC's board actually signs off, wouldn't likely surface in a formal filing for months. But the fact that it's being floated at all, on the heels of a confirmed price hike and a record capex guidance raise, says TSMC thinks the AI chip shortage isn't close to over.

Also read: BMW Will Use AI to Cut a Fifth of Its Senior Managers by Mid-2027 • OpenAI accuses Moonshot AI of running a campaign to steal its model reasoning • XRP Ledger agentic payments race toward 10 million as AI agents pay each other directly

This article is posted in Technology News, check it out for more related stories.