Introduction: On the morning of May 15, TSMC officially announced that it will build a 5nm wafer factory in , Arizona, , the United States, with a planned monthly production capacity of 20,000 pieces, and is expected to be mass-produced in 2024. This article quotes the views of Andrew Lu, a well-known semiconductor analyst.
Source: TSMC official website
Taiwan Business Times quoted mainland travel 's view that the United States lacks the cluster benefits required for mid- and downstream manufacturing of semiconductors, the differences in work efficiency between the East and the West, and impact on Taiwan's semiconductors, so it is not optimistic and opposes TSMC going to the United States to invest in and set up factories. Lu said that due to pressure from the United States, TSMC can only be a model factory at most and cannot be "scamd" to build wafer factory.
First of all, the United States does not have a downstream semiconductor packaging, testing and assembly industry chain, etc. This means that if a supporting package cannot be formed in the short term, the wafer from this lonely Fab Wafer-out needs to be sent to East and Southeast Asia for packaging and testing and assembly. At the same time, except for TSMC itself, the 5nm technical threshold determines that only a few manufacturers such as Sun and Moonlight have the ability to seal and test new processes.
Land Travel said that Hon Hai 's foundry in Wisconsin, USA has not yet appeared. In essence, the most powerful thing in the United States is design and research and development. Don't imagine that it can become a kingdom of technological product manufacturing.
Secondly, the United States has "thick hands and feet" and lacks the efficiency required for wafer foundry manufacturing. It is difficult to achieve 24-hour shift work and research and development every day. Lu Xingzhi said that as early as 10 years ago, it was estimated that the cost of wafer manufacturing in the US factory of Intel is more than twice that of TSMC. The main key lies in the yield, capacity utilization, upstream, midstream and downstream clustering benefits of semiconductors and work efficiency differences.
Figure: Intel's global manufacturing factory
This is known by TSMC's Wafertech, which has not expanded its factory. Even Intel has to set up factories overseas to reduce costs. This is also the reason why the Fishkill, the largest foundry in the United States, was the Fishkill, the New York factory, could not be operated in the end.
Figure: Global Fab distribution of GM
Finally, if TSMC really goes to the United States to produce semiconductors required for core technologies, in addition to having doubts about the future development prospects of Taiwan's semiconductors, once a major event occurs, the US government will just take care of TSMC's US factory . Lu Xingzhi believes that still needs to treat American customers as hostages , but TSMC must not be "scamd".
He said that TSMC went to the United States to set up a R&D and sales team. It would be possible to fool the US government, but don’t go to the United States to set up a factory. There are still many questions worth discussing in the future. Can TSMC really expand production unlimitedly in Taiwan? . Are there enough land resources for on the island of Taiwan? Which emerging country is the best place to expand production?
Editor's note:
The signs of decoupling between China and the United States have been further exacerbated by the epidemic. From the perspective of TSMC, the contradiction between being close to customers or close to the industrial chain is very sharp. is to avoid risks and reduce costs . Setting up OEM factories in mainland China and the United States may be the only way to diversify potential political risks, but at the same time, it is facing the problem of being "kidnapped" by customers.
After repeatedly "rejecting" Americans' "coercion and inducement", he knew that there were many difficulties and the cost increased greatly, TSMC's attitude turned a big turn this time as if there were some unexplainable factors including .
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