TSMC Founder Says He Supports US Efforts To Slow China's Chip Advances

The retired founder of TSMC said on Thursday that even as he supported U.S. efforts to slow China's advances in the semiconductor industry, the "bifurcation" of the global supply chain and the reversal of globalisation would increase prices and reduce the ubiquity of chips that power the modern world. From a report: "There's no question in my mind that, in the chip sector, globalisation is dead. Free trade is not quite that dead, but it's in danger," Morris Chang said, speaking at an event hosted by Taiwan's CommonWealth Magazine. "When the costs go up, the pervasiveness of chips will either stop or slow down considerably," said Chang, who at 91 remains an influential voice in Taiwan's chip industry. "We are going to be in a different game." In Taiwan, TSMC, Asia's most valuable listed company and a major Apple supplier, is widely regarded as the "sacred mountain protecting the country," because of its economic importance. [...] U.S. "onshoring" and "friendshoring" efforts to boost chip manufacturing stateside or in allied countries present a predicament for Taiwan. "Friendshore does not include Taiwan. In fact, the commerce secretary has said repeatedly that Taiwan is a very dangerous place, we cannot - America cannot - rely on Taiwan for chips," Chang said. "Now that, of course, is I think Taiwan's dilemma."

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