| | | TSMC founder doubts US competence in chip-making
Taiwanese semiconductor giant's founder warns of rocky road for the company's new $12 billion manufacturing plant in Arizona
by Frank Chen April 24, 2021
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) founder Morris Chang told a symposium this week that the fundamentals underlying his semiconductor production company’s world domination are not easy to replicate or transplant elsewhere – including in the United States.
The company’s plain-spoken founder warned in particular of challenges for the company’s planned, new $12 billion fabrication plant in Phoenix, Arizona, which he and other senior executives and American officials had broken ground on less than a year ago.
TSMC’s cutting-edge semiconductors power phones, computers and control electronics in cars and wireless networks. TSMC has profited immensely from the current global chip shortage, caused in large part by previous US president Donald Trump’s tech war against China.
The campaign has been carried over during the Biden administration, which includes hard bans on the export of any chip-making equipment made with US components to Chinese companies.
At a forum hosted by Taiwanese media outlets, Chang hailed the workhorse mentality of the Taiwanese working class, as well as the island’s deep pool of high-caliber, industrious talent devoted to the chip sector.
At the same time, Chang pointed to an apparent comparative lack of talent in America’s mostly moribund manufacturing sector.
“The United States stood out for cheap land and electricity when TSMC looked for an overseas site but we had to try hard to scout out competent technicians and workers in Arizona because manufacturing jobs have not been popular among American people for decades,” Chang said, according to a transcript of his speech viewed by Asia Times.
Chang also warned about sending Taiwanese managers overseas to run plants.
“Computers of different brands can often be hooked together but not people of different culture,” he said, referring to the preponderance of Taiwanese and Taiwan-trained managers and technicians at TSMC.
“The fact that TSMC’s top-flight executives can deliver top results in Taiwan is no guarantee of similar performance when they are posted overseas.” Only one Westerner sits on the company’s 26-member board.
Taiwan’s state-of-the-art infrastructure helps to rev up TSMC’s operations and time-to-design and time-to-market capacities, he said.
Chang said the island’s efficient and well-developed high-speed rail network and cobweb of expressways provided the vital “circuitry” for TSMC’s research and manufacturing between its headquarters in Hsinchu, near Taipei, and other plants across Taichung and Tainan.
“It was a breeze for us to rotate technicians and staff among the three fabs across the island and when employees change over from one location to another, they even do not need to move their homes thanks to Taiwan’s bullet trains and highways and well-rounded transport and logistical support,” said Chang.
“It’s unlikely we can replicate all these in Arizona.”
continues at asiatimes.com |
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