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This is an important point. TSMC announced earlier this year that they'll be building a foundry in the US[0], but my understanding from what I read at the time
by jdpedrie 6y ago
This is an important point. TSMC announced earlier this year that they'll be building a foundry in the US[0], but my understanding from what I read at the time is that it's a relative drop in the bucket.
[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/15/tsmc-to-build-us-chip-factory.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/15/tsmc-to-build-us-chip-factor...
- blackrock 6y agoI suspect that this venture will be a failure. The magic behind TSMC's success, is their huge quantity of semiconductor engineers, that they employ to achieve their yield. It's because the photo-lithography devices from ASML are so finicky, that you need to babysit them. Which means that you need a lot of engineers. And they must also be relatively cheap. Otherwise, you burn through your budget. Which is also something that Taiwan can provide, since the exchange rate is more favorable for this work. For the American foundry to work, they must employ a lot of engineers. And engineering labor in the United States is expensive. Hence, the US foundry may operationally work, but it will be a commercial failure.