Washington’s efforts to on-shore semiconductor production might lead to surges in chip prices and supply bottlenecks, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) said yesterday.
The 91-year-old industry veteran said he supports parts of Washington’s effort to slow China’s progress on advanced chip manufacturing.
China is still six years behind Taiwan in making advanced chips, despite years-long efforts to catch up, Chang told a Commonwealth Magazine forum that he coheadlined with Tufts University assistant professor Chris Miller, an expert on the US-China rivalry’s effects on chip manufacturing.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
However, Chang said that other parts of the effort, particularly Washington’s on-shoring and friend-shoring policies, perplexed him.
The US already holds a lion share of 39 percent in the semiconductor sector, including chip manufacturing equipment, chip design and intellectual property, he said.
Washington has excluded Taiwan from its friend-shore list, Chang said, citing US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo as saying that Taiwan is a dangerous place and the US cannot rely on it for chip supply.
"It is, I think, Taiwan's dilemma," Chang said.
However, Raimondo has not made any remarks on the issue since TSMC unveiled plans to set up fabs in the US, with investment totaling US$40 billion, he said.
Chang said he is not sure what the US wishes to achieve through its on-shoring and friend-shoring policies.
“On-shoring is in the name of security and resiliency,” Chang said, adding that even though the defense industry only needs an insignificant amount of chips, the US wants to build large domestic capacity.
The US already has 11 percent share of the world semiconductor manufacturing, he said.
“If you give up the competitive advantages of Taiwan and move to the US ... the costs are going up,” Chang said.
Chang previously estimated that chip manufacturing costs in the US would be 50 percent higher than in Taiwan.
“I found out that was an underestimate. Perhaps, a far worse underestimate than I was underestimated,” Chang said, referring to Miller’s book Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, in which the professor writes that Chang is the most underestimated businessperson of the past few decades.
Chipmaking costs in the US could be twice those in Taiwan, Chang said.
“That is going to have some impact on the further expanding ubiquity of the chips. That is one thing I can see. When the costs go up, the ubiquity of chips will either stop, or slow down considerably,” he said, calling chips the most “disinflationary item” of the past six decades.
Taiwan’s competitive advantages in chipmaking are based on its work culture, Chang said, citing his experience working for Texas Instruments Inc in the US from 1958 to 1983.
If a chipmaking tool at a Taiwanese fab breaks at 1am, it is replaced by 2am, he said.
In the US, the same issue would not be solved until the next day, he added.
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
RSS