TSMC talking about building fabs in the UAE

Last September the Wall Street Journal reported that both TSMC and Samsung had visited the UAE to talk about building fabs there.

Talks with the Biden administration about the plan broke down when the US government said it would need assurances that the US would be guaranteed a certain share of the capacity and have de-facto sovereignty over the site. 

It is now reported that Steve Witkoff, the US Special Envoy to the Middle East, has had ‘multiple’ meetings with both TSMC and an investment company controlled by the UAE’s president’s brother.

Last month, the US government agreed to collaborate with the UAE’s plan to build a large AI datacentre in Abu Dhabi and for the UAE to buy 500,00 of Nvidia’s latest chips.

The White House said at that time that the UAE had agreed to “further align their national security regulations with the United States, including strong protections to prevent the diversion of US-origin technology.”

Some US politicians and officials remain concerned about the security implications of the UAE datacentre deal and see the TSMC fab plan as even more sensitive to security issues as likely to lead to technology leaking to China.

Since TSMC’s six Arizona fabs are costing $165 billion, the cost of six, possibly more advanced, fabs in the UAE could be over $200 billion.