2024/12/26
TSMC's Chang: Sino-US technology decoupling will hurt everyone.
Recently, TSMC founder and Alibaba Group Chairman Joe Tsai held a roundtable dialogue in New York, the United States, mainly focused on "leadership in a fragmented world" and other topics. Chang said in the dialogue that the United States wants to slow down China's semiconductor development, but "decoupling" may eventually slow down everyone. "At the end of the day I think it could hurt everybody. If we work together, maybe we can accelerate [innovation]." Mr Tsai echoed similar sentiments. He pointed out that in a complex geopolitical environment, communication is extremely important, and he believes that the Chinese and American business communities need to communicate. Because communication can enhance mutual understanding, build mutual trust, and ultimately contribute to world peace. Lack of communication can lead to misunderstanding, distrust, and conflict. "I still believe that 99 per cent of the world's people love peace and want prosperity for everyone, not just for themselves." "Mr Tsai said. Alibaba Group Chairman Joe Tsai (left) and TSMC founder Morris Chang (right) (photo credit: It is reported that Morris Chang, 92, was born in Yinxian, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, moved to Nanjing in 1932, and moved to Guangzhou in 1937, studied in the United States Harvard University, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mechanical engineering degrees, doctoral degrees, with American citizenship. In 1987, after working at Texas Instruments (TI) for more than 20 years, he returned to Taiwan to found TSMC - one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers, known as the "godfather of semiconductors", and was chairman of TSMC before retiring as chairman in 2018. TSMC's customers include Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm. According to the Forbes list of Taiwan's 50 richest people released in April 2023, Chang's net worth reached 2.3 billion US dollars, ranking 24th and ranking 1312th in the world's richest list. Joe Tsai's ancestral home is Shuanglin Town, Nanxun District, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. He was born in 1964 in Taiwan Province, China. He is a Chinese Canadian and a permanent resident of Hong Kong, China. Mr. Tsai holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and East Asian Studies from Yale University, a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School and a bar license in the State of New York. In 1999, Tsai joined Alibaba founded by Jack Ma as chief financial officer, and then promoted Alibaba to get investment from Goldman Sachs and SoftBank Group, and completed IPO listing on NASDAQ in the United States and Hong Kong in China. In September 2023, Ali Group announced that Tsai Chongxin served as chairman and director of the Board of directors of Alibaba Holding Group, member of Alibaba Group Capital Management Committee, chairman of Cainiao Group, director of Taotian Group, member of the investment committee of Alibaba Group and Ant Group, one of the founding partners of Ali Group, and member of the board of directors of NBA China. The conversation between Tsai and Chang focused on topics such as technology, economy and education. When asked what keeps him awake at night, Mr Chang initially says no, then confides that he is particularly worried about "decoupling" and the way countries around the world seem to be complaining about each other. "It looks like countries are getting angry with each other, and that worries me." Chang believes that only cooperation can accelerate innovation, and his advice to U.S. business leaders to communicate more with China and Asian countries has been ignored by many. Chang also cited Harvard professor Graham Allison's international best-selling book Destined for War: Can China and the United States Escape Thucydides's Trap, which he said was accurate: "The situation was that the existing power was pitted against the rising power." He noted that Allison's book gave 18 examples of existing powers confronting emerging powers that led to war, "but we hope that nothing more serious will arise between China and the United States." In this regard, Tsai Chongxin said that the two "hot wars" between Russia and Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict made him worried. He called the current world "very dangerous and unpredictable" and expressed hope that "the world's two largest economies will not accidentally or intentionally enter into a bitter conflict." At the same time, Tsai also praised China's vocational education system and predicted that China would remain a manufacturing powerhouse despite recent economic difficulties. "But probably not to the point of making very high-end chips." Tsai stressed that China, like the rest of Asia, remains a "very dynamic place" for investors, with a large workforce and advanced technology talent. "You're looking at about 800 million people in the labor force, and 200 million of them are highly educated, highly skilled workers." "Mr Tsai said. Chang stressed that for a country to become a successful manufacturing hub, it does not need a lot of geniuses, but it does need "a lot of disciplined people" with technical skills. It is reported that in December 2022, TSMC announced that it began to build the second phase of 3nm wafer fab in Arizona, the United States, which is expected to be produced in 2026, plus the current phase of 4nm plant, the total investment of the second phase of the project is about $40 billion (about 279.572 billion yuan), which is one of the largest foreign direct investment cases in the history of the United States. Mr. Chang, now retired, has been giving public speeches recently. He said on Oct. 14 that globalization in the semiconductor industry no longer exists and there is no more free trade. And the immediate priority is national security. "I see this global race going on. Our competitors could take advantage of this environmental trend to beat us." Chang stressed that after 20 years, China's Taiwan chip industry is afraid of losing its advantages, and TSMC's future challenges will be more severe. On October 25, Chang returned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to give a speech at his Alma mater. According to the official website of MIT News, Chang pointed out in his speech that why TSMC can succeed, because TSMC has obtained many excellent and well-trained technical personnel from local vocational schools. In learning by doing, chipmakers can reduce costs by improving processes, but only if production is centralized in one place. He stressed that because of the relatively tense relations between China and the United States, chip manufacturing has become one of the areas of industrial competition between the two countries. "In a broader sense, the prominence of semiconductor manufacturing seems to be related to international and regional economic developments. Frankly speaking, the advantages that China's Taiwan region enjoys today...... What the United States enjoyed in the 1950s and 1960s." In the next few decades, India, Vietnam or Indonesia may be more suitable for developing semiconductor manufacturing, but it also depends on how the environment evolves. "Without national security, we will lose everything we hold dear," Chang stressed, "and we want to avoid a Cold War at all costs if we can.
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