Inside TSMC’s struggle to build a chip factory in the U.S. suburbs
Inside TSMC’s struggle to build a chip factory in the U.S. suburbs
Missed deadlines and tension among Taiwanese and American coworkers are plaguing the chip giant’s Phoenix expansion.
I do find it funny that the engineers are blaming each other more than the absolute tragedy of fuck-ups by corporate management. How do you go into Arizona not understanding that the whole state is literally just a series of real-estate and construction grifts? It's a city in a desert, it has to be that! Just bribe the motherfuckers with those subsides you received and be done with it!
They likely think upper management and executives are benevolent, intelligent, and deserving of their prestige and wealth. Such is the life of an engineer smart boy.
Not just that but Arizona politicians are some of the most hawkish with foreign policy. Taiwan leadership sees billions connected to US military industrial complex and AUKUS tied to the deal.
Hey, in a few more years (honestly, with the rate this is going probably more like a decade) the Yanks will finally be able to slap "Made in America 🇺🇸" on the chips they use in their missile's guidance systems! A huge win for the military industrial complex!
I don’t think the military cares too much about the nationalism of this. They care more about the continuation of semiconductor supremacy at the expense of Taiwanese people lol
And they'll still be importing F-35 parts from China lmao.
by the time they get their shit together TSMC isn't even gonna be the top manufacturer anymore
It's very interesting to compare TSMC's investments into Japan, which are coming online now, and this Arizona clusterfuck.
Reading between the lines, the Arizona deal was forced upon TSMC via the US and ROC governments and I highly doubt TSMC actually wants to be there.
I work for a multinational company that’s trying to nearshore some engineering work away from East Asia and into Eastern Europe. The official line is that they’re expanding the team, but the senior engineers aren’t stupid and know they’re being asked to train their replacements. Needless to say they’ve been stonewalling the process.
I expect this is also very much the case in TSMC as well. Even if you’re a rabid anti-communist, you’ll know that a tech transfer to the US loses Taiwan the only bargaining chip it has. Why would you play along?!
Yea, the CEO has expressed discontent even before anything happened and he constantly shit talks the plan lmao
Honestly, I'm pretty confident sending all these Taiwanese engineers to America is a massive net loss for TSMC...
By the time they get their shit together, Russia is going to own the Donbas (source of neon and wheat, both of which China needs), and then China will own Taiwan.
TSMC better hurry up if they want to complete this while they're still a company.
Isn’t semiconductor production notoriously water intensive? Wouldn’t it make more sense to built the facility somewhere near a body of water and/or cold environment and not a place where the government issued warnings for people to stay indoors if they have no good reason to be outside because of the heat?
I vaguely remember someone's logic saying that Arizona would willingly sell the company what little water they had or something
Permanently Deleted
you raise a lot of good points
The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company; Taiwanese TSMC veterans described their American counterparts as lacking the kind of dedication and obedience they believe to be the foundation of their company’s world-leading success.
I 100% guarantee that the American engineers are just too racist to stomach the idea of taking orders from Asian people.
Honestly it's probably both sides being racist to each other. The Taiwanese engineers know that this plant in the US is so that the US doesn't have to defend Taiwan. There's not much room for solidarity when that's what all this is for.
Don't forget that the work culture in Taiwan is not healthy either.
how much are they subsidized if anybody really believes that's a profitable venture?
More than your children’s school and grandma’s healthcare
Why tie a national security asset to such a hot button thing like Taiwan with all its cultural and language barriers than say an existing US based company liie Texas Instruments, IBM, intel ect? Now you got all these billions of investment tied to an AUKUS sensitive geopolitical saber rattling hot pot. Thats fucking stupid from a risk standpoint.
None of those companies manufacture computer chips, only designed them
Intel only started making after the chips act
TI has fabs in the US, I toured one. They’re not bleeding edge though.
This is just a repeat of that foxconn LCD panel manufacturing debacle in Minnesota a couple years ago.
It was in Wisconsin.
i remember every ghoulish politician patting themselves on the back on the news, being like "wowie! this new foxconn plant will make so many new jobs!" before the deal collapsed and they went on to drop 500 million dollars on the brewers while Milwaukee slowly dies a painful death!
Permanently Deleted