When Nvidia and TSMC Arizona marked the first Blackwell wafer produced in Phoenix in October 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called it “the very first time in recent American history that the single most important chip is being manufactured here.” It was a milestone. It was also, in one important sense, unfinished. A wafer is not yet a working chip. Before a processor can … [More]
Some Assembly Required: Arizona Builds the Last Step in Chipmaking
Amkor’s Peoria campus and TSMC’s packaging plans aim to finish Arizona-made chips without a trip across the Pacific
Arizona’s Chipmakers Bet on Recycled Water as Colorado River Cuts Deepen
Arizona’s semiconductor boom has always come with a question attached: Where will the water come from? That question got sharper on Aug. 21, when the U.S. Department of the Interior issued new operating guidelines for the Colorado River. The decision cuts Lower Basin deliveries by 1.25 million acre-feet in each of the next two years. Arizona’s share is 760,000 acre-feet a … [More]
SEMICON West Finds Its Permanent Home in Phoenix
For more than half a century, SEMICON West and San Francisco were nearly synonymous. The annual gathering became a fixture of the Bay Area’s technology landscape, bringing together the companies, innovators, suppliers and decision-makers responsible for advancing the semiconductor industry. Now, the industry is moving and its premier North American gathering is moving with … [More]
Nokia to Transform NXP’s Chandler Campus for AI-Era Optical Chips
Nokia plans to give NXP Semiconductors’ Chandler manufacturing campus a new role in the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The telecommunications company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire NXP’s Chandler Fab and Chandler Probe site. Subject to regulatory approval, Nokia will begin leasing part of the facility in early 2027 and acquire the full … [More]
Echoes of the Boom: Arizona’s Fab Explosion Brings Suppliers in Tow
TSMC’s $265 billion commitment is accelerating the supplier network taking shape around Arizona’s semiconductor industry
Arizona’s semiconductor boom has long been measured by its biggest numbers. Billions in investment. New fabrication plants. Thousands of jobs. TSMC’s latest expansion pushes those numbers to another level, but some of the clearest signs of its impact are showing up in the smaller facilities and industry connections forming around those massive projects. In July, TSMC … [More]
Arizona’s Semiconductor Story Adds a Korean Chapter
Arizona’s international semiconductor work has focused largely on Taiwan and Japan. TSMC put the state’s connection to Taiwan at the center of its industry growth, and agreements signed earlier this year brought Arizona, Taiwan and Japan together around manufacturing, research and workforce development. State officials are now directing more attention to South Korea. The … [More]
Fab Growth Pushes Foresight Past 1,000 Employees
Tempe-based Foresight Technologies has been part of the semiconductor supply chain since 1995. The company does not make chips. It makes the systems fabs need to run: high-purity components, chemical distribution systems, tool installation support and specialty fabrication for cleanroom environments through on- and off-site manufacturing. The company just recently passed … [More]
McKinsey Study Puts New Numbers on U.S. Chip Workforce Challenge
The jobs are there – or are coming – but where’s the career interest?
The conversation around the semiconductor workforce can sound like a glass-half-empty story. The numbers are big, the gaps are real and the timeline is tight. But the same numbers point to one of the clearest career opportunities for students being told the job market is harder to break into. The New York Fed reported that labor market conditions remained challenging for … [More]
The Ripple Effect of Semiconductor Partnerships in Arizona
Arizona’s semiconductor expansion is beginning to reach beyond fabs and factory floors, creating ripple effects across workforce training, university research, business development and the state’s broader innovation economy. Partnerships between companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Amkor Technology are one example of how major industry investments can … [More]
Phoenix Looks to Turn Its Chip Base into a Quantum Edge
Quantum has been talked about as the next breakthrough for years. Now the conversation is changing. Industry leaders are starting to talk about the quantum age as already underway, not something far off in the future. That makes Phoenix’s new quantum push interesting. Quantum systems are still difficult to build, expensive to scale and sensitive in ways traditional computing … [More]
Arizona Chosen to Lead Southwest Semiconductor Workforce Hub
Most people use semiconductors all day without thinking about them. They are in phones, cars, laptops, appliances, medical devices and the systems running behind nearly every part of modern life. That is part of the challenge for the industry. The technology is everywhere, but the workforce behind it is still largely invisible to many students and families. Arizona is now … [More]
TSMC-Amkor Deal Connects More of Arizona’s Chip Supply Chain
For the last few years, Arizona’s semiconductor story has mostly been told through fabs. New buildings going up in north Phoenix. Expansions in Chandler. Suppliers moving closer to chipmakers. It made sense; fabs are the most visible part of semiconductor manufacturing, the part people can see from the freeway or in construction photos. But the next part of the story is what … [More]
Arizona’s Semiconductor Workforce Push Is Expanding Beyond Engineers
For years, much of the focus centered on engineers and chip designers. As new fabs and supplier facilities continue moving into Arizona, the labor demand is widening well beyond those roles. Technicians, facilities workers, maintenance specialists and cleanroom operators are becoming just as critical to the industry’s expansion. Addressing this, West-MEC recently opened what … [More]
What Happens After the Fabs Arrive
For the last several years, Arizona’s semiconductor momentum has largely been measured through expansion announcements, investment totals and construction updates. New fabs. New suppliers. New projects moving into the state are helping Arizona position itself as one of the country’s largest semiconductor hubs. But at the recent SEMI Arizona Chapter Breakfast Forum, the … [More]
How Skanska Is Powering Arizona’s Rise
Building the Workforce Behind the Global Semiconductor Revolution
Arizona’s semiconductor industry is rapidly expanding, fueled by robust international and local investments that are transforming Phoenix's economic landscape. Yet, as the sector grows, so does the urgent need for a highly skilled workforce capable of constructing the advanced infrastructure it demands. While construction remains one of the most in-demand jobs in Arizona, the … [More]
Arizona’s Tech Growth on Display at AZ Tech Week
With more than 400 events across the state drawing people to panels, workshops, startup pitches and meetups, Arizona’s first statewide Tech Week wrapped up April 12. The turnout says something about where Arizona’s tech economy is right now and how much of that activity is directly or indirectly tied to semiconductor growth. Unlike a typical conference, Arizona Tech Week … [More]
Artemis II: Arizona’s Role beyond the Launch
Semiconductor and aerospace & defense industries share a symbiotic relationship
Artemis II sent astronauts around the moon for the first time in decades — a 10-day mission that lifted off from the same pad used during the Apollo era. Naturally, most of the attention was on the rocket, the crew and the mission itself. What’s less visible is how much of that work happens outside the launch site, including in Arizona. Sen. Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, … [More]
Building a Semiconductor Community in the Desert
To date, $34.5 billion has been invested in Arizona’s semiconductor industry, with the promise of $100s of billions more to come. With that kind of investment, it is no wonder that the area near the TSMC site is beginning to attract more than just manufacturing. Housing, infrastructure and support services are being planned alongside it. Developments like Halo Vista, a … [More]
