Biden Cements TSMC Grant Before Trump Takes Over

The U.S. Commerce Department said Friday it has finalized a $6.6 billion government subsidy for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's U.S. unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. It comes just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, who criticized the program, takes office. In April, TSMC agreed to expand its planned investment by $25 billion to $65 billion and to add a third Arizona fab by 2030.

NEW YORK/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -The U.S. ordered Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers that are often used in artificial intelligence applications starting Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Department of Commerce sent a letter to TSMC imposing export restrictions on certain sophisticated chips, of 7 nanometer or more advanced designs, destined for China that power AI accelerator and graphics processing units (GPU), the person said. The U.S. order, which is being reported for the first time, comes just weeks after TSMC notified the Commerce Department that one of its chips had been found in a Huawei AI processor, as Reuters reported last month.

The U.S. government has tried to keep Chinese companies from obtaining certain advanced technologies, but concerns have been growing that some products may have been routed to Huawei.