News Taiwanese govt clears TSMC to make 2nm chips abroad — country lowers its 'Silicon Shield

[Admin]

Taiwanese ministry lifts bars that prohibit TSMC to build 2nm chips at its facilities overseas.

Taiwanese govt clears TSMC to make 2nm chips abroad — country lowers its 'Silicon Shield : Read more

 

[ezst036]

Taiwan re-discovering free markets, it seems.

 

[Eximo]

I did think it was odd they wouldn't want to maximize production. Probably pressure from their customers.

 

[-Fran-]

There's a few things, at a high level, I can get from this, but it's more tinfoil hat territory.

Still, good they allowed this, since TSMC will still get the revenue and pay their taxes accordingly in Taiwan I'm sure.

Regards.

 

[joeer77]

Smart move TSMC. No one protects IP more than the USA! US based equipment suppliers will also be beneficial to getting your fab up and supported quickly.

 

[8086]

This is the best thing Taiwan can do for their own security: because keeping their best processes on the homeland makes them a bigger, more desirable, and juicy target for the mainland chicoms. Now that their best will be produced in the West, it must be giving the communists some second thoughts on their goals and strategies.

 

[bit_user]

This is the best thing Taiwan can do for their own security: because keeping their best processes on the homeland makes them a bigger, more desirable, and juicy target

LOL, because their N2 export plans are slated for a point in time when Taiwanese fabs will be well beyond. It seems to me they're retaining the same strategy, just adjusting the thresholds a bit.

On your point, whether or not they have an exclusive lock on the latest node probably doesn't move the needle as far as them being a target. They were a target before all of the semiconductor fab sanctions came into being. It's not primarily about that.

Finally, Japan's Rapidus and Intel/Samsung are moving rapidly to compete. Intel could have a N2-comparable node already ramped up this year. Not sure about Samsung's timelines. Rapidus is making... rapid progress. Sounds like they'll be soon to follow, but we'll see.

 

[staticks]

I love how Washington DC is basically stealing TSMC and Taiwanese technological IP away from Taiwan, under the thinly veiled pretense of "protecting them." What happened to TSMC being Taiwan's "silicon shield" against foreign invasion? The Taiwanese people, or at least their corrupt government officials, must be the biggest suckers on the planet.

 

[bit_user]

I love how Washington DC is basically stealing TSMC and Taiwanese technological IP away from Taiwan,

They're not. The IP stays in TSMC, even if the factory is located on US soil. IP theft, in the USA, is punishable by US law.

Plus, don't you think the way the fab machines are programmed is closely guarded? Sure, people working there can observe certain external details about their process, like the amounts of different chemicals & materials used, but I'm sure they're not privy to the fine details of the fabrication process. They're factory workers, don't forget. They mostly just do care & feeding of the machines.

BTW, the machines, themselves, are made by ASML and used by everyone at the cutting edge (except for a couple Japanese fabs). Certain details of how they work and the high-level details of EUV nodes are going to be the same for everyone.

 

[Joseph_138]

They should move all their tooling for processes more advanced than what China and Russia are capable of producing to a safer country, that way, if China does invade, they won't be getting technology any better than what they already have. NVIDIA and AMD could also produce their A.I. products far away from China. If China invades Taiwan, NVIDIA and AMD are basically done, because where else are they going to produce their GPU's, if not at TSMC's fabs? Samsung? South Korea is hardly safer than Taiwan, if China decides to send their military forces out to seize more advanced technologies from it's weaker neighbors.

 

[Joseph_138]

I love how Washington DC is basically stealing TSMC and Taiwanese technological IP away from Taiwan, under the thinly veiled pretense of "protecting them." What happened to TSMC being Taiwan's "silicon shield" against foreign invasion? The Taiwanese people, or at least their corrupt government officials, must be the biggest suckers on the planet.

You would rather China and Russia get the tech?

 

[bit_user]

They should move all their tooling for processes more advanced than what China and Russia are capable of producing to a safer country, that way, if China does invade, they won't be getting technology any better than what they already have.

Right now, the world is highly dependent on Taiwan's advanced fabs. This gives everyone a reason to care greatly what happens to it. If Taiwan took the source of its most valuable exports and moved it to a 3rd country, it would mostly eliminate the main reason for anyone caring what happens to it. China wants Taiwan either way, but Taiwan needs the rest of the world to be invested in its independence. You should try thinking about this from Taiwan's perspective.

If China invades Taiwan, NVIDIA and AMD are basically done, because where else are they going to produce their GPU's, if not at TSMC's fabs?

AMD is currently fabbing some of its chips at TSMC's Arizona fab, as is Apple. It's a fair question just how independent that fab is from the "mother ship", however. AMD has also been dabbling with Samsung, whom Nvidia is also rumored to be going back to (Ampere was made on Samsung 8nm).

And then there's Intel's foundry. Gelsinger said he welcomed Nvidia and AMD fabbing their chips there. I can understand why they're reluctant to do so, but I think they'd do it in a pinch.

Samsung? South Korea is hardly safer than Taiwan,

That'd be a whole different ball game, if war broke out on the Korean peninsula. Currently, nobody is predicting that. Also, like TSMC, Samsung also has fabs in the US and Japan.

BTW, you forgot about Japan's semiconductor industry, which most notably includes Rapidus.