According to industry insider Tim Culpan, in late September, TSMC's Fab 21 wafer plant in Arizona, United States, encountered production disruptions and partial wafer scrapping. This was triggered by a power outage at Linde Group, a key supplier. A TSMC spokesperson acknowledged the power outage incident but refrained from confirming the specific losses incurred. Although the power outage at the supplier did not directly result in a blackout at Fab 21, it did disrupt the supply of crucial production materials. This led to a several-hour production halt at TSMC, causing economic losses, the exact amount of which the company did not disclose. Throughout its operations in the U.S., TSMC has had to outsource certain functions, such as gas supply. This makes Fab 21 more susceptible to external disruptions. However, this incident could potentially provide TSMC with valuable insights to enhance its subsequent construction plans. While production disruptions are not rare in the operations of chipmakers, they are typically caused by natural disasters or human errors, rather than failures on the part of suppliers. TSMC has stated that Fab 21 nearly reached the breakeven point in the third quarter. Nevertheless, due to significant initial investments made in launching the third phase of construction, this claim still needs to be substantiated by financial report data. Furthermore, halting operations at a semiconductor wafer plant comes with extremely high costs.