Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is an important and long-term partner, Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger said yesterday upon arriving in Taiwan on a trip that is widely believed to be a quest to secure the Hsinchu-based chipmaker as a supplier of advanced 3-nanometer chips.
The move would seem to backtrack Gelsinger’s remarks that Taiwan is geopolitically unsafe, and that the US should not overly depend on Asia for semiconductors, but should invest more in the country’s homegrown chipmakers.
With the construction of a new fabrication factory in Phoenix, Arizona — its first major expansion overseas — TSMC is vying for US government subsidies to roll out 5-nanometer chips at the fab by 2024. The firm hopes that subsidies and incentives will help cut the cost of manufacturing in the US.
Photo courtesy of Intel Corp
Yesterday, Gelsinger addressed the importance of local supply chains, saying that Taiwan is also home to more than 1,000 Intel employees who have been working closely with “our Taiwan customers and partners for the last 36 years to deliver leadership products.”
“Prominent among these partnerships is our long-standing relationship with TSMC. TSMC has unlocked the magic of silicon for us and others in the industry in so many ways, creating products that would otherwise never have existed,” he said in a prerecorded video. “What TSMC has done is spectacular.”
Although Gelsinger has not revealed the reason behind his visit, industry insiders and analysts believe that he came for TSMC’s 3-nanometer chips, which are to be the most advanced chips when they become available in the second half of next year.
“Obviously, Gelsinger came to Taiwan to secure a supply of advanced chips from TSMC,” Cornucopia Capital Partner Ltd (聚芯資本) managing partner Eric Chen (陳慧明) said by telephone yesterday.
With the 3-nanometer chips, TSMC “will play a key role in helping Intel fend off competition from AMD [Advanced Micro Devices Inc] in the CPU [computer processing unit] segment, in particular,” Chen said.
Intel makes chips at its own factories, but it has lagged behind TSMC by about two years in migrating to next-generation process technologies, Chen said.
AMD, one of TSMC’s major clients, is usually the first adopter of TSMC’s most advanced chips, along with Apple Inc.
TSMC and Intel declined to comment on what their executives would discuss.
Gelsinger said that Taiwan — home to an entire, vibrant ecosystem that has woven technology, culture, business and competition into a hub of the semiconductor industry — is at the heart of much of the innovation transforming digitization.
Now, more than ever, semiconductors are in the spotlight, he said, adding that without semiconductors, everything stops.
To tackle the global chip crunch, Intel must have factories in multiple geographic locations — here in Taiwan and in other key locations around the world, he said, adding that Intel would continue to invest in Taiwan.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
RSS