The United States is unreliable, and TSMC began to turn back

TSMC has recently reversed its previous attitude and is no longer enthusiastic about setting up factories in the United States. While announcing the mass production of 3 nanometers in Taiwan, it has accelerated the expansion of 28 nanometers capacity of its Nanjing factory in Chinese Mainland, which shows that it hopes to rely on Asian regions, including the Chinese Mainland market. People in the industry refer to this as TSMC turning back.
The United States is unreliable, and TSMC has begun to turn back. People’s Daily: Give up fantasy
1、 TSMC Chengmei TSMC did not get a return
In recent years, the United States has been a big stick and carrot to TSMC. It has asked TSMC to hand in confidential data, asked TSMC to set up factories in the United States, and launched a $52 billion chip subsidy plan, which finally led to TSMC to set up factories in the United States. TSMC has not only built a 5-nanometer factory in the United States, but also planned to build a 3-nanometer factory in the United States. Therefore, the industry once exclaimed that TSMC would become a USMC.
However, reality has given TSMC a big hand. In October 2022, TSMC chartered 10 planes to transport 300 technical backbones, family members and equipment from Taiwan to the United States, speeding up the mass production of the 5-nanometer factory in the United States. However, TSMC soon found that the United States could not find enough technical workers at all, and these technical workers were unwilling to work overtime and night shift, and finally only 300 technical backbones could be on top.
After TSMC decided to speed up the process of mass production in the United States, the American chip companies did not give corresponding rewards. Because the cost of chip production in the United States was 50% higher, TSMC hoped that the American chip companies would bear part of the cost, but the American chip companies refused.
The United States is unreliable, and TSMC has begun to turn back. People’s Daily: Give up fantasy
Finally, the chip subsidies announced by the United States only gave TSMC 10% of the share, and more than 70% of them were given to local chip companies in the United States such as Intel and Micron, and even Samsung also got 13% of the share. This naturally made TSMC understand that the United States did not regard it as its own, and it was not worth the loss to set up factories in the United States.
The setback in the United States began to make TSMC reflect. TSMC finally realized that its hope was still in the Asian market, so it quickly turned around and returned to the Asian market, as well as the Chinese Mainland market.
2、 TSMC turned around
At the end of 2022, TSMC announced that the 3nm process was mass produced in Taiwan, China, China, and held a mass production ceremony for the 3nm process very rarely. The 3nm factory in the United States is expected to be mass produced as soon as 2025. At that time, it is estimated that the 2nm process of TSMC has also been mass produced in Taiwan, China, China. This undoubtedly shows that its focus is still in Taiwan, China, China.
The United States is unreliable, and TSMC has begun to turn back. People’s Daily: Give up fantasy
While Taiwan, China mass produces 3 nanometers, TSMC also announced that its Nanjing factory in Chinese Mainland will continue to promote the production expansion plan of 28 nanometers process. TSMC’s promotion of the production expansion plan of its Nanjing factory is undoubtedly to seize the Chinese Mainland market, because the Chinese Mainland market is the chip market that continues to maintain the momentum of expansion.
The data in 2022 shows that Chinese chips are developing steadily, replacing American chips with domestic chips, thus reducing the import volume of domestic chips by 97 billion, which provides the basis for the development of Chinese chips. Many emerging chip enterprises in China need a large amount of chip capacity, and the capacity utilization rate of three Chinese chip manufacturing enterprises exceeds 90%, while Taiwan’s Taiwan factories have to close some EUV lithography machines due to overcapacity, TSMC needs to seize the opportunities of the mainland market.
That’s why foreign media think that TSMC has gone back. After all, the chip industry in Chinese Mainland once contributed more than 20% of TSMC’s income. At that time, TSMC had more bargaining power with the help of the checks and balances of Chinese chips. TSMC’s prices rose frequently, but American chips could only accept them. This is a sharp contrast to the fact that since last year, because American chips contributed 70% of TSMC’s income, TSMC repeatedly refused to raise prices.
The United States is unreliable, and TSMC has begun to turn back. People’s Daily: Give up fantasy
However, since TSMC has begun to return to the Asian market, it cannot be regarded as a reliable partner. After all, TSMC has complied with the request of the United States to stop manufacturing chips for a Chinese technology enterprise. The People’s Daily once commented that it cannot have any illusions about overseas chip companies. The chip industry still has to rely on us. Only by taking the lead can we ensure the safety of the Chinese chip industry.