8 Recently, at the TSMC shareholders' meeting, Liu Deyin said that although the US chip bill is still in communication and discussion between the Senate and the House of Representatives, the US also realized that the local semiconductor industry will not only rely on local semiconductor manufacturers in the United States, but also must support semiconductor manufacturers invested in the United States. Therefore, there is no concern that the US government may only subsidize local semiconductor operators in the future. As for the current statement that the goal of surpassing TSMC in the relevant US-South Korea or US-Japan cooperation, Liu Deyin emphasized that this aspect is just to maintain the stability of the supply chain and should not surpass TSMC.
Liu Deyin pointed out that after TSMC had long communicated with the United States, even the American Semiconductor Association believed that it would not work to revive the US semiconductor industry to achieve it by relying solely on American semiconductor companies. Therefore, most of the industry, including those in Congress, feel that it is necessary to open up the competition between semiconductor companies around the world in the United States. Regarding the US President Biden visits Japan and South Korea, they talked about related semiconductor cooperation matters, and did not visit Taiwan during the itinerary because Taiwan is not very similar in international system, but there is still a lot of cooperation in substantive operations. Therefore, visiting Japan and South Korea is just a formality, so there is no need to worry.
Liu Deyin emphasized that there have been many discussions in the past on the substantive cooperation between Taiwan and the United States, including trade, technology, and semiconductor supply chain. Therefore, the cooperation between the United States and South Korea or the United States and Japan is not to surpass TSMC. These negotiated cooperation is basically for the growth of US trade and technology, as well as the stability of its semiconductor supply. Under this framework, Taiwan will definitely be part of it. Especially, many of TSMC's customers are from the United States, and TSMC is definitely a part of it. Therefore, TSMC is happy to see more cooperation and will not regard it as a threat. In addition, TSMC has begun to strengthen localization of the supply chain and will continue to carry out in the future. It includes strengthening localization operations on parts, services, materials, and back-end equipment, so that it can boost Taiwan's economy under the leadership of the semiconductor industry.
Some shareholders asked a question because of the lockdown in Shanghai, China, and the epidemic prevention and control, causing Japan's Kyushu wafer fab to delay its mass production plan. In response, Liu Deyin denied that there was such a situation and emphasized that the progress of the Kyushu Kumamoto Fab was carried out according to the schedule. In addition, shareholders are also concerned about the talent of Kumamoto Fabs in Kyushu. Liu Deyin also pointed out that Japan does have few semiconductor factories and has cultivated relatively few semiconductor talents, but there are not many scientific and technological talents in Japan. Through cooperative training with TSMC, especially sending some relevant personnel to Taiwan, this can learn and cooperate with Taiwan's wafer factory staff, which can currently meet such needs. As for the salary part, TSMC can also fully absorb it. Because Kyushu Kumamoto Fabs is TSMC, Japan's SONY and Denso, so it cooperates with each other. The current demand is a 28-nanometer process, which will continue to advance to 16-nanometer in the future. Therefore, in order to meet customer needs, it is not ruled out that there will be adjustments to the update process in the future.
In addition to the concerns of the problem of factory building in Japan, shareholders also asked questions about the increase in factory building costs in the United States. Liu Deyin pointed out that it is indeed the cost of building a factory in the United States to be higher than expected, but it is not something that TSMC cannot cope with. In the part of recruiting people, Liu Deyin also admitted that it is indeed more difficult than in Taiwan, but at present, they have also achieved the goal of hoping for the number of people. However, there is a new learning curve for building a factory in a new place, and TSMC has also spent a lot of time studying. In particular, the number of local fabs is not as large as Taiwan's, and the supply chain is not as complete as Taiwan. After TSMC enters the local area, and competitors such as Intel , Samsung , etc. also go, the local supply chain will be more competitive. But no matter what, TSMC will continue to carry out this plan and will also conduct an assessment of the financial impact at any time. There is no problem with achieving a long-term gross profit margin of 53%.
