this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025
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Taiwan are very clear about this; they (correctly) consider their monopoly on high end chip manufacturing to be an urgent matter of national defence and it is of the highest priority to them to keep it solely within Taiwan. They will never allow their best processes to be exported.
TSMC have advanced chip fabrication factory in Arizona in the US.
"TSMC will produce 3nm chips in the U.S., and Taiwan has already given TSMC the go-signal to manufacture 2nm chips abroad."
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/apple-will-soon-receive-made-in-america-chips-from-tsmcs-arizona-fab-company-in-final-stages-of-quality-verification
But it cannot produce the higher end chips. That was explicitly part of the agreement when they built the facility. They're only willing to fab low end product outside of Taiwan.
I was being very specific when I said "their best processes."
I wouldn’t say 5nm and 3nm are low end
https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/2977
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/tsmcs-arizona-fab-21-mass-produces-4nm-chips-at-a-higher-price-than-taiwan
Sure, "low end" wasn't a perfectly scientifically accurate way to describe it. I apologize for my terrible lack of academic rigor.
The point is that they're not going to let their highest end processes be replicated outside of Taiwan. Or, rather, the Taiwanese government is not going to let that happen, because fear of losing access to that technology is their one bargaining chip with the West. Without that, they cease to exist as a country. There just isn't enough incentive for anyone to risk a war with China otherwise.
Totally agree that it’s a sound strategy to keep their latest and greatest on home soil. At the same time they are starting to implement tooling for important parts of clients designs like
Core chiplets for Ryzen
iPhone SOCs
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/gaming-monitors/amd-is-now-reportedly-making-all-american-ryzen-9000-cpu-dies-at-tsmcs-arizona-fab/
OK. It is ahistorical and hyperbolic to say they may never do that. They also have their fabs i n Taiwan rigged to self destruct if they get invaded. They are setting up shop in a different country. As fab dies shrink they get harder to make, they are building expertise somewhere else in case.
The thing with that fab is it doesn't do packaging, they ship the wafers abroad for that. I wonder if americans will end up paying tariffs on chips made in the USA.