> I’m naive on this topic but what makes TSMC pretty much the only fab on the world that can do this? Do they have technology the west doesn’t? Know how? Why is

> I’m naive on this topic but what makes TSMC pretty much the only fab on the world that can do this? Do they have technology the west doesn’t? Know how? Why isn’t there a fab in the US, it can’t be just labor costs? Just steadily keeping doing what it did for 30 years straight without compulsion to chase "the next big thing"? A rather unglamorous industry, and for most of their history, they did not chase the bleeding edge, letting more moneyed players to bleed each others. I read some of those very extensive market research reports (or better to say market research books) which go to semiconductor companies for few thousand bucks a pop. It's mind boggling how much consideration, calculations, and planning goes into a decision to sign on a $10B+ fab spending. Forecasts, and technology analysis goes for at least a decade forward, and they dive further than simply tech, into things like social trends, and etc. So, it is, the industry is very hard, very obscure, and works like an ant repellent on "next big thing" chasers from Silicon Valley culture.