Recently, two pieces of news about Taiwan’s semiconductor industry deserve attention.
First, TSMC’s 5 nanometer chip factory in Arizona plans to achieve mass production by 2024. It is worth mentioning that the factory’s monthly production capacity was expected to be 20000 pieces. Now the supply chain says its production capacity will increase by 10% to 22000 pieces.

Second, Cai Lixing, CEO of MediaTek, the world’s fourth largest fabless IC design company, said that due to the tension between China and the United States, many manufacturers are considering transferring part of their supply chains to regions outside Taiwan. When TSMC’s plant in Arizona starts to operate, MediaTek will also launch production in the United States.
Thanks to decades of operation, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has reached the forefront of the world in the past decade, especially the foundry of chip production. However, as the United States cracked down on China to consolidate its technological hegemony, it exposed more and more naked ambitions for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry.
At the end of September last year, the United States, under the guise of jointly discussing the “shortage of global chip supply chain”, invited major semiconductor giants from all over the world to gather in the United States to hold a semiconductor summit, and, on the grounds of improving the “transparency of the supply chain” of chips, forcefully requested TSMC, Samsung and other chip manufacturers to hand over the inventory, orders, sales records and other data that are considered as trade secrets within 45 days.
In August this year, Speaker Pelosi of the US House of Representatives visited Taiwan, especially met with Chairman Liu Deyin of TSMC, focusing on the implementation of the “Chip and Science Act” passed by the US Congress, which provides US $52 billion of federal government subsidies to domestic chip factories. Previously, relevant people said that TSMC invested $12 billion in a 5-nanometer chip factory in Arizona, and the construction progress would depend on the “Chip and Science Act”.
In fact, TSMC has always been conservative about going to the United States to build a factory. On the one hand, TSMC’s production cost will rise significantly after leaving Taiwan; On the other hand, under the current environment, there may be a variety of risk factors in building a factory in the United States, and a little carelessness will lead to a loss of money. Zhang Zhongmou, founder of TSMC, said frankly that it was futile and wasteful to go to the United States to make cores.
Despite the reluctance of the industry, the United States has never stopped hollowing out Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. According to the news of TSMC and MediaTek, more and more supply chains are speeding up their departure from Taiwan, the most important advanced chip manufacturing center in the world.
When talking about the departure of some supply chains from Taiwan, Cai Lixing, CEO of MediaTek, said meaningfully, “But is that enough? No, it’s not enough.”
Whether Taiwan’s semiconductor industry will move towards hollowing out, I’m afraid the insiders have an answer in mind.