I suspect they realized how long the drive was. Siting a fab is difficult and subject to a lot of constraints. The first and most important constraint is having

I suspect they realized how long the drive was. Siting a fab is difficult and subject to a lot of constraints. The first and most important constraint is having land to actually build anything. Intel is built right up against the tribal boundaries. The west parking lot is actually on tribal land. The TSMC campus would have required bulldozing an entire block to fit in city limits. Notice how the location chosen is along one of the few borders not constrained by tribal boundaries? Intel also has a special deal with Chandler to get SRP water. Both Chandler and SRP as a whole probably couldn't afford the same for TSMC. They currently have a complicated deal with Phoenix to take that water from CAP, Groundwater, and the non-SRP allocation Phoenix gets. The difference is supposed to be made up with reclamation.