Will the future become MEC? TSMC chairman says' no way '

A few days ago, according to the American Chinese newspaper "World News Network" reported that TSMC chairman and president Wei Zhe Jia delivered a speech at the Executive MBA of Taiwan University, entitled "If there is no TSMC", in the speech, he responded to the outside world for whether TSMC may become a "US semiconductor" in the future.
In his speech, Wei talked about the difficulties he encountered in setting up a factory in Arizona, saying, We were in Arizona, and I was trained with a lot of snot and tears.

Mr Wei points to three difficulties in setting up a factory in Arizona. The first is infrastructure. The first is America's inadequate infrastructure capacity. He said it was remarkable to build a house in the United States. Locals don't build factories, and even if there is an Intel plant next door to TSMC's Arizona plant, it was built ten years ago and now the people are gone. "We ended up getting half the construction workers from Texas."

The U.S. can supply TSMC with the grade of chemicals it needs, but at five times the price of those imported directly from Taiwan. TSMC can only ship sulfuric acid from the island to the port of Los Angeles, from which it can be trucked to Arizona, and even then it is cheaper than producing the chemical directly in the United States.

The TSMC Arizona plant is the rest of the world

The second problem is local government, which is reflected in local laws and administrative speed. Wei Zhe Jia said that he has never thought of a local local government various laws and regulations are not the same, and the local government does not know how to amend the regulations, but also requires TSMC to use TSMC money to hire experts to make rules, every meeting has municipal officials, TSMC invited experts, TSMC. It is up to TSMC to speak and jointly formulate the rules before proceeding to the next step. "We ended up with more than 18,000 regulations that cost $35 million."

In terms of administrative speed, Wei Zhe jia pointed out that the reason for TSMC's rapid progress is that it can build a production line in two and a half years. Each technological advance changes the design of the entire production line, and TSMC works with manufacturers to immediately modify each change. But in the United States, any change has to be stopped, applied to the local government with the blueprints, and waited for their approval.

To that. Wei Zhejia bluntly said: "The latest technology runway to the United States, do you think it is possible?" It takes at least twice as long to apply for everything and then come in."

Mr Wei said it would take two and a half years to build a production line again, with land, water, electricity and talent. Each time a new technology is rolled out, TSMC needs to build at least three plants. Taking the 3-nanometer factory as an example, Wei Zhe jia said that if the above conditions are met, it will take about five years to move the entire TSMC to any country and build a factory that meets the needs of all customers.

The last problem is the trade union problem, Wei Zhe Jia said: "At the beginning of the establishment of a trade union is a very noble ideal, is to help workers fight for better welfare, but after that, the trade union has become very strange." "World News Network" believes that TSMC has encountered labor and salary problems in the local area.

Mr Wei said TSMC would continue to expand its investment in Taiwan. "World News Network" believes that TSMC, the latest technology will only stay in Taiwan, China, it is difficult to move to other countries.

Recently, U.S. Commerce Secretary Raymond Mundo said that TSMC has begun production of 4-nanometer chips in Arizona for American customers. "For the first time in U.S. history, cutting-edge 4-nanometer chips are being produced in the United States by American workers, with production and quality comparable to Taiwanese products." She said the production, which had not been previously disclosed, had begun in recent weeks.

The New York Times said that about 50% of the employees of TSMC's Arizona wafer fab are still from Taiwan, but with the continued expansion of the fab, this situation may change over time.

TSMC had previously expected the first fab in Arizona to be mass-produced in the first half of 2025 and the second fab to produce state-of-the-art 2-nanometer chips in 2028. In addition, TSMC agreed to adopt the most advanced "A16 chip" manufacturing technology at its wafer fab in the state.

In December last year, Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said in response to inquiries that TSMC had become a "front name" for the DPP authorities to curry favor with the United States. As public opinion on the island has said, the DPP authorities are determined to "rely on the United States to seek independence", and TSMC will become "the United States Semiconductor" sooner or later. If the DPP authorities are allowed to "sell Taiwan" without a bottom line, the advantages of relevant industries in Taiwan are bound to be weakened, and the interests of enterprises and people on the island are bound to be damaged. When Taiwan's use value is squeezed dry, the "chess pieces" will become "abandoned children", and the island's enterprises and people see this more and more clearly.

Zhu Fenglian said that it should be pointed out that many Taiwan enterprises have been able to develop rapidly through participation in Cross-Strait cooperation, which fully proves that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait work together to strengthen the Chinese national economy is the right way.