From somebody to nobody: TSMC faces uphill battle in U.S. talent war

PHOENIX, U.S./TAIPEI -- On a quiet April morning, cranes, bulldozers, trucks and construction workers bustled down streets in two places lying in opposite directions from Phoenix: those to its north building TSMC's $12 billion chip fab, and those to the south working on a $20 billion expansion of Intel's 42-year-old campus.

Only 80 km apart in Arizona, both projects broke ground in 2021, and both are racing to begin production by 2024. While it may be a while before the factories come online, the two chip giants are already battling with each other for labor -- and the road ahead may be far rockier for TSMC.