Posted on 12/11/2021 12:43:14 PM PST by elpadre
NEW YORK – Taiwan’s chip fabricators signed an agreement on December 3 to create their own semiconductor equipment industry, opening an “option to decouple from the West,” in the view of a prominent US research firm.
The Taiwanese initiative responds to Washington’s extraterritorial sanctions on buyers of US fabricating equipment, imposed by then-president Donald Trump in May 2020. The US asserts the right to block sales of chips produced with US machines or intellectual property.
The US sanctions shut off Chinese tech giant Huawei’s access to high-end chips of 7 nanometers and below, crippling what previously was the world’s top handset producer. Unable to make 5G phones, Huawei lost market share to Chinese handset producer Xiaomi and sold its Honor smartphone business.
The US sanctions, though, had little impact on Huawei’s telecommunications equipment business including equipment for 5G infrastructure, which uses older chips that are easier to source.
Taiwan will become “an advanced semiconductor production center,“ said Taiwanese Vice-Premier Shen Jong-chin, adding that Taiwan would invite chip equipment makers to move facilities to the island. The Taipei government plans to build one or two additional science parks in addition to the three parks now in service to accommodate the equipment manufacturers.
“We have a world-leading semiconductor industry in Taiwan, but 90% of our semiconductor manufacturing equipment is imported,” said Habor Hsu, chairman of the Taiwan Machine Tool and Accessory Builders Association, the Taipei Times reported.
He added, “In the wake of Covid-19 and the US-China trade dispute, international businesses will change where and how they make their products.” Four Taiwanese trade groups and three nonprofit organizations representing the whole of Taiwan’s high-tech industry signed the deal.
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
They think they can get stolen and copied US technology from China cheaper?
Maybe so, but it will always lag behind. By how much it will lag, I can’t say.
and more:
“..The US share of world semiconductor manufacturing has shrunk from an absolute monopoly in the 1960s to just 12% today, and only in mature nodes. President Joe Biden proposed and the US Senate passed a $52 billion subsidy for US semiconductor manufacturing.
But as Alan Patterson observed in a December 7 opinion piece for EE Times, a US electronics industry magazine published in the US, companies like Intel, IBM, Microsoft and Google who have lobbied for these subsidies spend money to buy back their stock rather than invest in chip-making...”
The Silicon has left Silicon Valley?
Taiwan is seeking more business ties with China? That seems contrary to what many outsiders would expect.
I thought Taiwan was worried about being taken over and reabsorbed into China. I guess not.
They should ask the folks in Hong Kong how much better their lives are today.
It’s Taiwan’s future. No point in US soldiers dying to save them.
Welcome to 1939, with a Chinese accent.
It’s a trap.
“... who have lobbied for these subsidies spend money to buy back their stock rather than invest in chip-making...”
granting subsidies without conditions is gross negligence. I read several months ago (maybe on FR) about a large company that took their pandemic PPP money and gave it all away on staff bonuses.
I went back and read the article at the source, and it appears to me that the author does not realize that “Taiwan” and “China” are not the same.
Samsung’s opening up a chip factory in Texas. It’ll be on-line in three years or so.
Taiwan is appeasing the bully with half its lunch money. Will the bully be satisfied?
Yep, Taiwan is saying "Adios M F" to Jao Xiden's Amerika.
They know Xi owns him and all American Democrats and RINOs so their making their best deal direct.
Very Quickly Biden, American Democrats and RINOs will become No Longer Useful Idiots and then they will find out what Bolshevik Marxists do to no longer useful idiots.
Building a $12 BILLION chip plant in Phoenix, Arizona!
“Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company may not be a household name, but with a market value of over $550 billion, it’s one of the world’s 10 most valuable companies. Now, it’s leveraging its considerable resources to bring the world’s most advanced chip manufacturing back to U.S. soil...”
“...China already has had a number of high-profile failures, including the closing last week of Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Manufacturing, which shut operations after a projected investment of $18.5 billion. Backed by the Wuhan local government, Hongxin was supposed to produce 7-nanometer chips...”
https://asiatimes.com/2021/03/chinas-low-growth-target-reflects-tech-war-drag/
A friend installs 5nm chip machines in Taiwan and S. Korea. There’s a standing joke about China being so inept they couldn’t even steal enough design information to make usable 7 nm chips much less the 5nm
They want to be able to manufacture and sell chips to Chinese companies that make smartphones and other electronics like Xiaomi and Huawei and Oppo.
And who can blame them? Microsoft in particular would be foolish to invest in related industries outside its core business, in light of the legal troubles they’ve had in the past over antitrust issues.
The Chicoms aren’t going to invade Taiwan. They’ll just buy it. Like they are doing to the US.
Taiwan bending to China’s wishes. Shouldn’t surprise anyone. Of course, Taiwan is still willing to spill American blood to fight off any Chinese invasion, just not Taiwanese blood.
“...And who can blame them?...”
It seems a large percentage of that pandemic give-away tax-payer money was not necessary and wasted on unrelated uses. Even church national denominated received in the millions as did individual churches making up the denomination. Many resort businesses had a banner year, yet received the money. Too much waste, too much faulty thinking.
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