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Taiwan trepidation
It’s been over a year since you covered the rise and rise of TSMC, and its strategic importance to the world in terms of chip production. With a new Taiwanese president in place who has been labeled a “troublemaker” by China, do you think there’s any danger of the global chip supply being majorly disrupted in the coming years?
Also, what do you think of tech companies like Intel who are slowly moving chip manufacturing to America? Do you think that’s ever going to realistically work?
–R. Daltry
JEREMY LAIRD RESPONDS: Firstly, anything can happen, but the question is what is probable. China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, is no fool. He knows that any attempt to take Taiwan by force will mean the end of the island nation’s chip foundry industry.
TSMC’s chip manufacturing plants are unimaginably complex and fragile, you see. A tiny speck of dustfrom munitions. They also need an army of ultra-skilled staff, so the bottom line is this: if China takes Taiwan by military force, it’s unimaginable that this could be achieved without catastrophically disrupting TSMC (and other foundries in Taiwan).
