Why AZ?

Note: The numbers currently shown for TSMC and Amkor are projections.Sources: Greater Phoenix Economic Council; Maricopa Association of Governments; Arizona State University.
Jacqueline Gu/The New York Times

Let's think about this. Outside of the fact Ronnie eliminated the ability of the US to make anything anymore and the fact TSMC is doing the drill here is ... tech needs water, lots and lots of water and AZ "ain't" got any. Combine this with climate change and AZ becomes uninhabitable within the next 20 years. If I were doing the drill, Michigan and it's connect to the Great Lakes makes sense. Cold as hell in the winter but, Michigan will endure as the northern and southern tiers of the world will thrive while the center will not. Nature finds a way, always.

The computer chip factories rising from an empty expanse of the Sonoran Desert test the concept of immensity. The complex is under construction across 1,149 acres, an area larger than New York’s Central Park. It represents an investment of $165 billion, making it one of the most expensive undertakings on earth.

Here on the northern edges of Phoenix stands a display of the American reach for industrial self-sufficiency. The factories are engineered to make advanced computer chips — the brains of modern manufacturing. Those chips will power data centers that deliver artificial intelligence.

American political leaders celebrate the presence of the plants as insurance against geopolitical turmoil and disasters like pandemics. Whatever happens, the nation will have its own supply of computer chips.

But the company at the center of this enterprise — one cast as vital to national security — is not American. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, the global leader in the industry, has marshaled the investment, the people and the know-how to turn these plans into reality.

The question remains ... why AZ?

Factoid. Another reason for Michigan. Fabs run hot, really really hot so having
said tech reside in cooler climes saves energy, right?