Elon Musk, CEO of US electric vehicle brand Tesla, praised Taiwan’s “massive” pool of tech talent as the basis for its success in the semiconductor industry in an X post on Dec. 28.
“The massive untapped technical talent in Taiwan was the main reason. At least, that’s my understanding,” Musk said.
The businessman was responding to a post by Bojan Tunguz, who used to be a data scientist at US artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp.
Photo: CNA
In the post, Tunguz said Morris Chang (張忠謀) founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) in Taiwan instead of the US due to “the rampant anti-immigrant and racist sentiment in the industry at the time.”
Tunguz said it was the biggest error made by the US technology industry in history, adding: “In the coming few years we might pay an EXTREMELY high price for it.”
Musk said he did not quite understand this point of view and went on to praise Taiwan’s talent pool.
Taiwan rolls out the majority of high-end chips globally, with TSMC playing a dominant role.
According to the Taipei-based market information advisory firm TrendForce, TSMC’s market share rose to 64.9 percent in the third quarter of last year. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, fell further behind with 9.3 percent.
Musk’s praise is in contrast to previous comments he has made about Taiwan. In 2022, he said in a Financial Times column: “My recommendation ... would be to figure out a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable, probably won’t make everyone happy,” when discussing Taiwan and China relations.
“And it’s possible, and I think probably, in fact, that they could have an arrangement that’s more lenient than Hong Kong,” Musk said.
Political parties in Taiwan criticized Musk for the comments. Then-premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party said Musk did not understand Taiwan and cross-strait issues.
In addition, Musk said Taiwan was an “integral part of China” in the “All In” podcast in September 2023. He also compared Taiwan’s ties with China to Hawaii’s relationship with the US.
At the time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by saying if Musk was making the comments to boost his business interests, he was not worth listening to.
Then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) also fired back on X, saying: “Listen up, #Taiwan is not part of the #PRC & certainly not for sale!”
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS