chip is related to the development of industries such as artificial intelligence , new energy vehicle , 5 G and other industries. With the advancement of technology, chips are like food for technological development. Once there is a shortage of chips and souls, it will be difficult for our technology industry to rise. Even if it can develop, it may cause a huge crisis due to the stumbling blockage of and .
Mastering the chip is equivalent to mastering the "technology and food". It can not only protect the development of science and technology, but also avoid "mindful" malicious competition, thus occupying an invincible place.
Because of this, TSMC's status is so special, it has attracted worldwide attention and has become the key target of the United States' "wind".
The consequences began to show
TSMC's financial report showed that in the second quarter of this year, the total revenue reached 534.141 billion NT$ (about RMB 120.648 billion), a year-on-year increase of 43.5%; net profit was 237.027 billion NT$ (about RMB 53.538 billion), a year-on-year increase of 76.4%.
From the revenue data, TSMC can be regarded as the number one beneficiary of semiconductor dividend . Thanks to the stable orders of Apple , Qualcomm and other companies, making money is unambiguous, making many chip companies envious.
But the surface situation is very good, but TSMC has actually been surging undercurrents. Some of the wrong decisions made before have begun to have bad consequences.
First of all, TSMC's power and talents are no longer enough. According to news, because EUV lithography machines are too power-consuming, TSMC decided to turn off some of them from the end of this year to save power. At present, TSMC's EUV lithography machine has a total of about 80 units, and an lithography machine, , will "swallow" 30,000 kWh of electricity in one day, and the power consumption reaches tens of millions of kWh a year, which is very terrifying.
TSMC has been severely short of people in recent years, especially this year. It is reported that TSMC is "grabbing people" everywhere with high salaries. As long as you go to TSMC to work, you can get NT$38,000 (about RMB 8,600) during your internship. Similarly, TSMC's downstream operators, such as packaging and testing, cannot find talents, and can only recruit foreign students at high prices to fill the gaps.
The bigger crisis
One of the important reasons why TSMC is facing this current situation is that the construction of factories is restricted.
is restricted from building factories because the United States has always asked TSMC to build factories in the United States. In this way, TSMC will not be able to actively build factories in the mainland, especially high-end processes that rely on EUV lithography machines, and it will not be able to expand its capabilities. The cost and cost of building a factory in the United States is completely different than that of building a factory in China.
Zhang Zhongmou has warned more than once that it is unrealistic to build a factory in the United States. If we build a factory in the mainland, the power and talent problems can be solved well, which is also our advantage.
But if you build a factory in Arizona , it will not be said that the construction costs and raw materials are still rising continuously. The original planned investment costs are no longer enough, let alone put them into production, which helps TSMC solve some production capacity problems and saves power consumption.
Moreover, for TSMC, the current consequences are not over yet, and there will be greater crises in the future. According to reports, after TSMC has built a factory in the United States, it will immediately face the problem of "grabbing people".
Because Samsung , Intel , and TSMC are all building factories in the United States, which leads to the need for 27,000 front-line engineers by around 2024. However, the number of local semiconductor talents in the United States is completely insufficient, and TSMC must spend a lot of money to compete with local companies like "Intel".
What is difficult to deal with is that the local labor force in the United States has relatively idle "working hours" regulations. They will not be as serious as domestic labor force, and they will not be able to implement the " shift " system that TSMC has always been.
More, TSMC also needs to spend time and energy to train local engineers. After they become outstanding talents, they have to spend more money to prevent them from being poached by local companies. In this process, TSMC must also beware of technology loss.
In short, the factory has not been built and production has not yet begun, and TSMC has already felt like it is going deep into the cave.It can be foreseeable how difficult it will be in the future, which also confirms how correct Zhang Zhongmou's words are.
It’s a pity, TSMC has no choice but to regret it. He is now on the string and has to fire it.
It can be foreseeable how difficult it will be in the future, which also confirms how correct Zhang Zhongmou's words are.It’s a pity, TSMC has no choice but to regret it. He is now on the string and has to fire it.
