Arizona’s partnership with TSMC—Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s leading producer of advanced chips, represents one of the most ambitious U.S. industrial policy efforts in decades. By 2024, however, TSMC’s $65‑billion, three‑fab project in Phoenix had encountered repeated delays, cultural friction between Taiwanese managers and American union workers, and mounting financial losses. As the case notes, “TSMC had completed its Kumamoto, Japan fab in just two years,” while the Arizona site—far larger and more complex—fell behind schedule, raising political and economic pressure. The project became a centerpiece of the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to rebuild domestic semiconductor capacity after pandemic‑era supply chain failures exposed U.S. vulnerabilities.

Arizona officials found themselves balancing national security goals, TSMC’s cost and timeline concerns, union demands for safety and fair treatment, and local residents’ worries about housing costs, water use, and environmental oversight. Although the Building Chips in America Act exempted the project from lengthy federal environmental review—“the project did not need to undergo a full Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement”—community unease persisted. The case ultimately highlights the core tension of modern industrial policy: how to deliver strategic national outcomes while ensuring that local communities, workers, and taxpayers share in the benefits of large‑scale, globally integrated manufacturing investments.