Speaking at a Republican National Congressional committee event, Trump criticised former president Joe Biden’s administration for providing a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona, saying semiconductor companies don’t need the money.

“TSMC, I gave them no money … all I did was say, if you don’t build your plant here, you’re going to pay a big tax,” Trump said.

In March, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, said at the White House that it plans to make a fresh US$100 billion investment in the US that includes building five additional chip facilities in coming years.

Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported the chipmaker could face a penalty of US$1 billion or more to settle a US export control investigation over a chip it made that ended up inside a Huawei AI processor.