TSMC Plans $100B U.S. Expansion as AI Chip Demand Surges

Arizona is set to lose more than a quarter of its annual Colorado River water allocation due to a recent federal water management decision. The state, home to major semiconductor manufacturing expansions by TSMC and Intel, depends on the Colorado River for over a third of its water supply. The reduction comes as the river experiences unprecedented drought, creating a significant constraint on water-intensive chip production in a region critical to U.S. semiconductor revival efforts.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated the company expects to grow 70% in the coming year, citing its broad involvement across multiple business segments. Huang addressed concerns about circular dealing, asserting that Nvidia's various business relationships are not self-referential. The statement reflects confidence in sustained demand across the company's portfolio.

Microsoft plans to triple Azure's data center capacity to over 38 gigawatts by 2032, up from 12 gigawatts currently. The expansion reflects the company's response to server shortages constraining its cloud operations. The buildout will add approximately 26 gigawatts of new compute capacity over the next six years.

Skild AI launched S1, a robot foundation model that learns new tasks from single video demonstrations without retraining, using in-context learning to adapt to dynamic manufacturing and warehouse environments. Built on NVIDIA infrastructure, S1 achieved a 66% success rate per step on unfamiliar multistep tasks, compared to 9% for competing systems. The company has reached $100 million annual revenue run rate within 10 months of first commercial deployment, with over 60 partnerships across manufacturing, logistics, and other sectors.