TSMC as an American Foundry Of course, the term TSMC becoming an American Foundry isn’t something new and we have been hearing about that for a few months now, ever since the Taiwanese chip giant has invested ‘hundreds of billions’ in US under pressure from Trump. It appears that those in Taiwan are indeed concerned about TSMC’s investment in the US, feeling it has already paved the way to a “US-SMC.” 3
That changed when rumors came out that USG is looking to take a stake in TSMC, and Taiwan media saw this as TSMC abandoning their roots. Share 4 Update:Meanwhile, a new report claims that half of the Taiwanese population surveyed in a poll are worried about so much as TSMC turning into an US-centric foundry, UDN said. A poll by this newspaper indicates that 50% of the public is worried about TSMC turning into “TSMC of the United States.”
Now, scholars and experts note that this “TSMC of the United States” may already exist. If it’s not, the US’s strategic manoeuvre in its TSMC campaign has presented enough challenges to Taiwan’s semi-conductor industry. 5 A professor at Taiwan’s leading political science university, National Chengchi University, told BuzzFeed News that the Trump administration is hoping to get TSMC to manufacture next-generation nodes and advanced packaging in the US. 6 Without the chip giant, he asserts, Taiwan would become far less important to the US because TSMC is among the foreign-influenced nation’s key assets.
Yes, there are geopolitical issues with TSMC and the ongoing situation between Taiwan-China, but throwing Taiwan out of the equation completely and instead everything is moving to the US from TSMC takes on much grander dreams. Among TSMC’s “top-rated” clients are companies like NVIDIA, Apple, AMD, and Broadcom – all of which are American firms tendering for advanced nodes in the market.
7 And of course, since the Trump administration has made it their focus to return manufacturing back in the US, he’s absolutely used trade as a weapon of leverage which means Big Tech needs to spend big bucks to have friends in high places, and dodge huge tariffs coming their way. The Taiwanese giant is part of the ‘shift’ from East to West, so US presence for TSMC is not a luxury; it’s a must-have.
But even more critical, Taiwan still has control of the core of TSMC’s business, which is R & D around cutting-edge nodes. It also recruits most of its top talent from Taiwan, so the firm’s “recipes” are made in the nation rather than the US.
And crucially, high-end nodes such as the N2 never get made in offshore fabs – just Taiwanese ones – so TSMC is keen to keep critical technology at home though there’s no denying that the company has diversified its IP over the years with a strong tendency for hanging over America. TSMC’s future and whether it is Taiwanese or American – The issue about who TSMC belongs to, Taiwan or US, has also been discussed heatedly when TSMC is not only investing thematically but strategically in the US.
