In the 1980s, Zhang Zhongmou founded TSMC. To put it bluntly, TSMC served American companies from the beginning.
At that time, Japan's semiconductor industry once threatened the United States' technological hegemony. For this reason, the United States supported TSMC and Samsung . TSMC's main purpose was to take over Japanese unemployed chip talents and accept the transfer of in the United States' technology.
It is undeniable that after decades of development, TSMC has become the world's number one chip foundry company, , with a share of up to 51.6% of the chip foundry market, accounting for more than half of the chip assembly market. Technology companies such as Huawei Apple Qualcomm are all major customers of TSMC.
From the latest equity structure of TSMC, the US Citi occupies more than 20% of TSMC's shares. For this reason, many netizens say that TSMC is a company dominated by European and American capital.
says that TSMC is a company dominated by Europe and the United States, but it is actually too one-sided. Why? Because the amount of holding is not important, what is important lies in the equity governance structure. If governance rules are well formulated, 1% of the equity can still control the company.
For example, US stock investors hold 20.54% of TSMC's shares through Citi, but these holdings are as analyzed earlier, very scattered. Most of them are just financial investment in and will not have an impact on TSMC's production and operation.
Although European and American capital cannot have an impact on TSMC's operations, it is necessary to mention that TSMC's founder Zhang Zhongmou is an American citizen. This has made many netizens worried.
In Chun Gongzi's view, where TSMC will go in the future depends more on Zhang Zhongmou's personal attitude towards the United States.
Some time ago, the United States asked TSMC to hand over commercial data, but was severely rejected by TSMC. This shows that although TSMC benefited from US technology in the early days, its wings have really grown up now and are unwilling to hand over the core things.
We all know that the United States has been hoping to improve its manufacturing industry over the years and bring more semiconductor core technologies back to the United States. Zhang Zhongmou also expressed his views on this issue.
Zhang Zhongmou said that the past globalization and free trade brought prosperity to the world. Thomas L. Friedman wrote in the past that "the world is flat", but the current world is no longer flat. He believes that the US semiconductor supply chain is incomplete and production costs are high. He believes that the United States will not be successful in promoting local semiconductor manufacturing.
The reason why the United States puts pressure on TSMC is mainly to further control TSMC and even the chip industry. Why? Because the United States understands that TSMC is currently the world's most powerful chip foundry. As long as it grasps the data of TSMC customers, the United States can make a series of targets to its competitors.
Data shows that in 2020, the United States was TSMC's largest market, accounting for 61.07% of its revenue; the mainland Chinese market ranked second, accounting for 17.45% of its annual total revenue.
Because European and American capital has TSMC's equity, and TSMC's founder Zhang Zhongmou is also an American citizen. American companies do business with TSMC. TSMC may give in or give priority to serving American technology companies. But now the United States wants TSMC to hand over business data. Can a company lose its core secrets? The answer is inevitable no.
Many netizens are worried that Zhang Zhongmou is American, so TSMC will compromise with the United States. In fact, judging from Zhang Zhongmou's recent responses, Zhang Zhongmou obviously would not do this. Because Zhang Zhongmou understands more than anyone else how the Japanese semiconductor industry is heading for decline. I wonder what everyone thinks?
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