It would seem that building this fab in Arizona makes the US less likely to defend Taiwan against China. That is why they convinced them to build a plant on US soil so that they would not be reliant on a China-controlled Taiwan. Have the Taiwanese policymakers taken this into account for their strategic calculations:
Most of TSMC’s 12 fabs are in Taiwan and China, leaving the world vulnerable to potential slowdowns from natural disasters, including the current drought there, or the geopolitical tensions of the region. Some experts, however, refer to TSMC as Taiwan’s “silicon shield” in its fraught relationship with China.
“The media paints a very bleak picture of this situation,” Rolland said, “but I’m actually much more optimistic — in part because of this idea [of] the semiconductor shield, because of this mutually beneficial relationship between the mainland and Taiwan itself. China as of right now needs them for their leading-edge manufacturing.”
The U.S. also depends heavily on the chips coming out of Taiwan — a key reason the government worked hard to convince TSMC to bring its tech here.
If mainland China launches an invasion of Taiwan the US will support Taiwan by providing intelligence, support, and weapons as far as they can. That's it. The US will not directly engage the Chinese.
The US have probably 'asked' the Taiwanese to build fabs in the US/Japan/etc in exchange in order to minimize disruption. The Taiwanese are in no position to refuse and that might actually provide a financial backup for the elite in exile, should it come to that.
I think the message here is that the US think that Taiwan will be taken if China decides to act so that contingency measures should be in place well in advance.
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 22.1 ms ] threadMost of TSMC’s 12 fabs are in Taiwan and China, leaving the world vulnerable to potential slowdowns from natural disasters, including the current drought there, or the geopolitical tensions of the region. Some experts, however, refer to TSMC as Taiwan’s “silicon shield” in its fraught relationship with China.
“The media paints a very bleak picture of this situation,” Rolland said, “but I’m actually much more optimistic — in part because of this idea [of] the semiconductor shield, because of this mutually beneficial relationship between the mainland and Taiwan itself. China as of right now needs them for their leading-edge manufacturing.”
The U.S. also depends heavily on the chips coming out of Taiwan — a key reason the government worked hard to convince TSMC to bring its tech here.
The US have probably 'asked' the Taiwanese to build fabs in the US/Japan/etc in exchange in order to minimize disruption. The Taiwanese are in no position to refuse and that might actually provide a financial backup for the elite in exile, should it come to that.
I think the message here is that the US think that Taiwan will be taken if China decides to act so that contingency measures should be in place well in advance.