Apple has announced it will be the first and largest customer of the new Amkor manufacturing and packaging facility being developed in Peoria, Arizona. Amkor will package Apple silicon produced at the nearby TSMC fab, where Apple is also the largest customer.
Amkor Technology is a provider of semiconductor packaging and test services. By the time of full project completion, Amkor plans to invest approximately $2 billion and employ approximately 2,000 people at the new facility, according to Giel Rutten, Amkor’s president and chief executive officer.
The company has secured approximately 55 acres of land with intent to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing campus with more than 500,000 square feet of clean room space. The first phase of the manufacturing plant is targeted to be ready for production within the next two to three years. Amkor plans to provide high volume, leading-edge technologies for advanced packaging and testing of semiconductors to support critical markets such as high-performance computing, automotive, and communications.
Rutten says Amkor worked closely with Apple on the strategic vision and initial manufacturing capability of the Peoria facility, which will package and test chips produced for Apple at the nearby TSMC fab. When the new facility opens, Apple will be its first and largest customer.
“Apple is deeply committed to the future of American manufacturing, and we’ll continue to expand our investment here in the United States,” Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, says in the press release. “Apple silicon has unlocked new levels of performance for our users, enabling them to do things they could never do before, and we are thrilled that Apple silicon will soon be produced and packaged in Arizona.”
Apple and Amkor have worked together for more than a decade, packaging chips used extensively in all Apple products. With a shared desire to manufacture in the U.S., Apple and Amkor developed plans to build the largest outsourced advanced packaging facility in America, according to Williams.
Apple’s investments in advanced manufacturing are part of the commitment the company made in 2021 to invest $430 billion in the U.S. economy over five years. Today Apple is on pace to meet its target through direct spend with American suppliers, data center investments, capital expenditures in the U.S., and other domestic spend, Williams says.
