TSMC CEO：Export Controls Damage Globalization
United Daily News, December 18, 2022
Chief Executive Officer CC Wei of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) made a rare warning on December 17 that export controls and banning products from other foreign countries destroy productivity and efficiency gained under globalization, or at least they reduce benefits offered by a free market. Since the benefits of globalization have been distorted, he urged politicians to offer solutions.
Wei was invited to deliver a speech on New Challenges Facing the Semiconductor Industry at Monte Jade Science and Industry Association meeting. In response to worries of “de-Taiwanization” of TSMC’s technology, Wei repeated four times that it will not happen at all.
Wei strongly objected to the “de-Taiwanization” issue being over-emphasized. He explained that it took more than 30 years for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to establish a complete supply chain and achieve its current stature. TSMC could not have done it alone.
Wei stated that semiconductors are the core components of all artificial intelligence (AI) products in the future, and now every country wants their own production, factories, and control of the source of chips. But the semiconductor supply chain is very long. From product ideation, specification, design, production, packing, and sales, the overall ecosystem is very long. Wei explained that building a factory and buying machines are the easiest steps, for most of the semiconductor equipment and materials produced are bought from abroad. The TSMC is better than others in that it uses this equipment to the extreme, but developing these technologies is very difficult. For instance, after the successful research and development of products in Hsinchu, then moving down south to Tainan, it needs to send 500 to 600 people to go for mass production, Wei indicated. There will be “indescribable difficulties,” let alone going to the United States.
Every country wants to build its own factory. Wei asked, “Is it so easy?” He emphasized that the most important part of the semiconductor industry is “talent,” which requires a sound education system and government support.
Wei believes that Taiwan’s pinch points lie in talents; other issues like land, water, and electricity can be solved. “But talents are not something you can buy; all technologies are accumulated.”
For recruiting talents, Wei went to Taichung First Senior High School, hoping that they would choose to join the semiconductor industry and work for the TSMC someday. If they choose to study science or engineering in colleges, plus two years of master’s degree, and two years of training, it takes them a total of eight years to be qualified to work for TSMC.
Wei said that semiconductor engineers take a very long time to cultivate, and there will be a shortage in the next few years. To attract more young people to join TSMC, he joked that the most effective way is to say to teenage boys: “It’s easier to get a girlfriend this way.”