Arizona just voted to legalize marijuana, so we know a little about the plant.

The massive chip factory is slated to begin operations in 2024, using a 5nm process and consuming 20,000 silicon wafers per month.

Founded in 1987, TSMC was the world's first dedicated semiconductor foundry and now operates more than 10 processor factories worldwide. It manufactures chips for Apple, AMD, Nvidia, and others. TSMC also manufactures many chips.

TSMC already manufactures chips in the U.S., with a factory in Kamas, Washington, that produces flash memory at an older process node of around 200 nm. Since the company tends to keep its latest technology in its Taiwanese base, it is rare to see advanced processes like 5nm in the US. We don't expect to see future nodes like the 2nm process TSMC announced it was working on earlier this year in Arizona, but it is nice to be surprised. [Competitor Samsung is not producing chips below 10nm in the US, and GlobalFoundries has delayed its move to 7nm to focus on 14nm chips.

Intel is the only major chipmaker, at least of the major chipmakers whose products we see in our gaming PCs, that is primarily based in the US. And now it seems that its rivals can have at least one or two nodes, TSMC, as a U.S.-based chip manufacturing option.

AMD's Zen 4 architecture has already been confirmed at the 5nm process node, so one can only assume that the company will stick with TSMC as a solid partner.

Construction in the desert is expected to begin in 2021 and is expected to employ 1,600 people. As our friends at Tom's Hardware also point out, this will be the company's most advanced laboratory outside of its home country of Taiwan. The company recently signed a 20-year contract to purchase the entire production of two offshore wind farms off the west coast of Taiwan, making this the largest corporate green energy deal ever.