The Arizona fab was a failure waiting to happen. Anyone with experience working in both the US and Taiwan could've told you that.

TSMC just saw the sweet sweet government money and forgot that there's a reason Intel's so far behind.

In fact, TSMC still hasn't gotten their money from the federal government. It's an IOU that could be turned over in the next election, and that's really bad for TSMC.

It is reported that Liu's position in TSMC was already fragile due to ex-CEO Morris Chang's disapproval of U.S. collaboration. Although TSMC's founder has held no official position at the company since 2018, he is apparently personally influential enough for his opinion to matter. Chang has been skeptical of the CHIPS Act and attempts to build new fabs in America, and this reflected poorly on Liu's position. According to this theory, the chairman was already on thin ice with his support for TSMC-U.S. cooperation, and the problems at Fab 21 were the final straw.