TSMC’s Fab 21 in Phoenix, Arizona, had to scrap thousands of wafers after a power outage at an industrial gas supplier forced the facility to shut down for “at least a few hours” in mid-September.

According to a report from independent journalist Tim Culpan, the power fault was suffered by Linde, a British industrial gases and engineering company. The reason for the fault is not known, but Culpan said Linde has been told by TSMC to identify and rectify the cause of the outage.

The semiconductor firm has invested more than $65 billion in the construction of three chip fabs in Phoenix. In March, the company doubled down on its investment in the US, announcing plans to invest up to $100 billion into the US chip manufacturing industry.

Customers at the chipmaker’s Arizona fab include Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Tesla. The financial impact of the shutdown is unclear, but given Fab 21’s limited capacity at present, it's unlikely to have put a significant dent in the company’s revenue.

However, Culpan said the biggest concern arising from the incident is TSMC’s inability to exercise full control over third-party vendors it needs to support its operations outside Taiwan. The chipmaker runs most of its own gas supply in Taiwan, but has contracted out the work for its Arizona site.

In September 2025, TSMC broke ground on a water reclamation project to support water recycling efforts at its Phoenix production plant.

No incidents related to power-related shutdowns have been reported in Taiwan, but the company regularly has to deal with the fallout from earthquakes, which regularly occur in the region. In February 2025, the TSMC reported losses of $162m as a result of the earthquake that hit southern Taiwan on January 21.

In response to a request for comment by Culpan, TSMC declined to address the disruption at the site, but said: “TSMC Arizona has begun to positively contribute to TSMC’s revenue. However, the company’s profit is influenced by multiple factors and should be read over time. We also stated before that the ramp-up for our overseas fabs will lead to gross margin dilution in the next five years, starting from 2025.”