I mean, one of Taiwan’s last-resort contingency plans is to basically blow up all their chip foundries and the machinery inside of it. They are absolutely willing to go scorched earth if their back is against the wall and there’s no hope of a successful defense.
Probably yes. All the assassin shit is something the West is not as ahead of the rest of the world as people seem to expect from the difference in technological development.
That aside, they do have some production of their own. EDIT: Good for military and good for usable PCs for China not to stop breathing without TSMC-made hardware.
If the PRC somehow successfully takes Taiwan, but in doing so, utterly destroys the vast majority of the world’s cutting edge chip foundry lines for cpu + gpu + ram + nvme, it’s a pretty safe bet that the rest of the world will be absolutely fucking livid with China at the very least, because it would cause EVERYONE’S economy to crash.
Netherlands-based ASML is said to have reassured the Dutch government that it can remotely disable its most advanced chipmaking machines should such an invasion happen, at least according to Bloomberg, which cites anonymous sources claimed to be familiar with the matter.
It isn't clear how ASML could remotely disable equipment sitting in a factory in Taiwan, but it is understood that the huge and complex photolithography machines require regular servicing and maintenance to keep them running.
ASML declined to comment on the question of a "kill switch," but confirmed to The Register that its equipment requires high maintenance to keep it operational, as does most of the machinery in a semiconductor plant.
Andrew Buss, IDC Senior Research Director in EMEA, agreed that ASML's chipmaking machines would not keep running for long without constant attention.
"These advanced machines are installed and run in co-operation with customers given their complexity and overall size, and just keeping them going requires ongoing active engagement, so they would likely not last long without manufacturers' support anyhow," he said.
Back in 2022, a US Army War College paper proposed that Taiwan should deter China by planning to completely destroy its semiconductor manufacturing capability in the event of an invasion by Xi Jinping's armed forces.
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ASML’s machines are very advanced using a lot of specialized parts (who’s export is probably also banned) and taking a lot of skilled labour to make. China will probably be able to eventually get there, but it’s going to be a while.