The US cannot achieve a totally independent semiconductor supply chain, as it needs partners, including Taiwan, to provide key components and engineering talent, Japan’s former “chip czar” Akira Amari said in Taipei yesterday.
In his address at the Yushan Forum, Amari said US President Donald Trump is aiming to achieve full self-sufficiency for the US in the semiconductor industry.
Toward that end, Trump has persuaded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to pledge an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, Amari said.
Photo: Toru Hanai, Bloomberg
Even then, US self-sufficiency is “impossible,” he said.
“Allied and like-minded countries should concentrate on their strengths to build a complete supply chain rather than putting everything in America,” he said.
Taiwan, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium and South Korea are strong in manufacturing, and ASEAN members produce high-quality chip components, he said.
“We need to combine the strengths of countries around the world,” Amari said.
The success of TSMC relies heavily on its talented engineers at all levels of the organization, he said, adding that the company’s high yield rate at its first fab in Arizona was because most of the 1,300 workers were Taiwanese.
That talent is critical to a strong chip industry, he said.
Yet the US would eventually insist that TSMC use US workers, which would be a problem, because US workers are extremely protective of their labor rights and take little initiative to do their jobs better, Amari said.
Another factor is that to prevent the leaking of confidential information, allied countries have to work together rather than go it alone, he said.
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