A severe shortage of engineers and technicians is a bigger headache for Taiwan’s semiconductor companies than excessive inventory in the supply chain. It could take a few quarters for customers to level off chip gluts overbuilt in fear of supply disruption due to COVID-19 restrictions. Talent drain, however, poses greater and longer-term risks for chip companies, as upgrades to next-generation technology and capacity expansion are likely to be hampered, leading to weakness in competitiveness.
The inventory-driven downcycle did not hinder Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) growth. The world’s largest contract chipmaker even raised its revenue forecast for this year, saying that revenue is expected to expand about 35 percent annually, outpacing its earlier estimate of 30 percent year-on-year.
“Customer demand continues to exceed our ability to supply. We expect our capacity to remain tight through this year,” TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors last month.
TSMC, which counts Apple Inc, AMD and Nvidia Inc as major customers, said its capacity utilization should remain healthy next year, although customers are expected to continue digesting chip stockpiles through the first half of next year.
Given its customers’ commitment, the chipmaker does not plan to slow its pace in capacity expansion and technology upgrades, keeping its record-high capital spending almost intact for this year in a range between US$40 billion and US$44 billion. TSMC said its capital budget is based on customer demand over the next several years and would not be affected by a short-term demand slump.
Talent acquisition, however, continues to be a challenge for local chip companies, even for large-scale companies like TSMC. The supply-demand imbalance remains an issue, and recruitment is likely to continue to be difficult over the next three years, the online human resources firm 104 Job Bank said on Monday last week.
A semiconductor talent gap in the first quarter surged 39.8 percent year-on-year to 35,000 people, hitting a record high, according to a survey released by the job consultancy.
Semiconductor companies from smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc to chipmakers TSMC, United Microelectronics Corp and chip packager ASE Technology Holding Co are launching massive recruitment drives with targets in the thousands, the job agency said. TSMC said it plans to hire more than 8,000 workers this year.
With scant local semiconductor talent supply, companies are trying any approach to expand their talent pools. Some companies, such as memorychip maker Micron Memory Taiwan Co and semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Technology Taiwan Ltd, extended talent hunt activities overseas, targeting graduates in science and engineering from Southeast Asian countries.
More than that, technology companies have become more willing to open their doors to job applicants with liberal arts degrees if they are willing to be trained and take classes related to computer science and engineering.
To retain talent and fend off poaching, local semiconductor firms have raised overall compensation through salary hikes and improving bonus schemes. Local technology companies last year raised workers’ monthly salaries by an average of 4.7 percent to NT$54,729 from the previous year. That was the biggest raise in the nation’s electronics industry, with pay raises between 10 percent and 20 percent for key talent being a must, the job agency said.
As the US, Europe and Japan are all attempting to build chip factories at home to maintain supply chain resilience and prevent the chip crunch of the past two years from harming customers — especially in the auto industry — the fight for talent will only intensify.
For decades, the US and Taiwan have focused on shoring up Taiwan’s military defenses against a potential People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invasion. However, a new report by the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War, From Coercion to Capitulation: How China Can Take Taiwan Without War, explores alternative Chinese strategies. The report says that China could employ non-military methods such as threats, coercion and isolation to pressure Taiwan into submission. This highlights a potential gap in US strategy, suggesting a need to consider approaches beyond solely strengthening Taiwan’s military. Former US president Donald Trump and US President
Taiwan will once again be forced to compete in the Olympics this summer under a nonsensical moniker that neither refers to any political reality nor the identity of its team. Rather, Taiwan competes under “Chinese Taipei,” a Chinese construction imposed on Taiwanese without consultation. “Chinese Taipei” is the sole Olympic team not reflecting the name used by its own people. Even territories such as Puerto Rico, Hong Kong and the Virgin Islands are allowed to use their own names and flags. Other partially recognized states such as Israel, Kosovo and Palestine compete as themselves. “Chinese Taipei” includes athletes from Kaohsiung, Tainan,
The scuffles on the legislative floor on Friday last week over the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) forcing controversial legislation through to the next reading were embarrassing for the nation, but they were hardly unprecedented, and it is important not to fixate on them. Far more pernicious things are happening in the background. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus was fiercely opposed to the KMT’s and TPP’s antics. Objections and concerns have been expressed in many quarters, including international academics, the Taiwan Bar Association, local legal academics and the public. Protesters gathered outside the Legislative
One day after President William Lai (賴清德) was sworn in, tens of thousands of citizens gathered outside the Legislative Yuan, as legislators held a highly contentious session inside the building. Protesters decried the two major opposition parties — the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), whose combined seats in the legislature outnumber that of Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — for sponsoring several bills that are widely viewed as unconstitutional, financially and environmentally unsustainable or a threat to privacy rights. Equally objectionable in the eyes of many civic groups was the disregard for due process, as