It’s important to note that the delays here aren’t actually directly related to chip-making — it’s not that TSMC can’t get a hold of enough semiconductor production equipment. Rather, it seems the delay is more mundane, centered on the difficulties of building a gigantic industrial facility.
That timeline is key: as Nikkei Asia explains, once chip-making equipment is installed, it can still take up to a year to get everything certified and production started. For comparison, it typically takes TSMC two years to go from breaking ground to production for its fabs in Asia; the Arizona plant, which started construction in June 2021, may not start producing chips until sometime in early 2024, though.
