TSMC is having more luck building in Japan than in America

On the Japanese island of Kyushu, the fruits of the country’s industrial policy are about to go on show. On February 24th tsmc, the world’s most advanced chip producer, will open its first fabrication plant in the country. Earlier this month it announced plans for a second plant nearby.

Contrast that with the Taiwanese giant’s other big international expansion, in America. Last summer it pushed back the start of production at the first of two plants it is building in Arizona from 2024 to 2025. In January it announced that a second plant, previously scheduled to open in 2026, would not be operational until 2027 or 2028. The second was meant to produce three-nanometre (nm) chips, the most advanced currently on the market, but tsmc has raised the prospect that it may now be used for less cutting-edge production.