It is a coincidence that Taiwan’s Deputy Economic Minister Cynthia Kian will arrive in Washington on Tuesday, just as the board of directors of Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturers meets in Arizona for the first time.
However, the goals of Kiang’s consultations with US officials are very similar to the goals of the board at TSMC’s huge new Arizona chip complex. This is to minimize the threat posed by tariffs planned by US President Donald Trump.
Governments and businesses around the world are rushing to adapt to the US president’s enthusiasm for setting trade barriers, but few are at risk as much as Taiwan and its flagship chip makers.
Trump wants to tax imported semiconductors and dismantle the incentive scheme in which Washington agreed to subsidize $65 billion in TSMC’s US production capacity for $65 billion in investment worth $6.6 billion. It’s there.
“In the near future, we plan to place tariffs on foreign production of computer chips. Trump told House Republicans on January 27th.
“They left us and went to Taiwan. And we don’t want to give them billions of dollars like this outrageous program that Biden has,” he says, adding that foreign shipmakers. “We don’t need money, they need incentives, and the incentives will be, they will.” They don’t want to pay 25, 50, or 100% tax.”
Trump also accused TSMC, which manages more than half of the global market for bespoke chips, of “stealing” operations from the US, and relying on US security support without paying for it. It suggests that.
The views of Trump’s candidate for Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, are also not at ease for Taiwan and the TSMC.
At a nomination hearing last month, Rutnick said TSMC “utilized” the US to manufacture chips. “We’re too dependent on Taiwan,” he said. “We need to have… its production in the United States.”
Such feelings clash with the heart of Taiwan’s sense of security. TSMC’s leadership in cutting-edge chip manufacturing is widely seen as ensuring Taiwan’s importance to the US and as a supporter of Washington’s threat of annexation by China.
Taiwan’s economy minister Kuo Jihuei suggested on Saturday that a delegation led by his deputy Kian would “try to explain it more thoroughly to our American friends.”
This includes the fact that TSMC customers specializing in chip designs have a much larger profit share than manufacturers and operate without the risks arising from the vast capital investment in manufacturing plants. It will be available.
Tech industry experts said the concept that Washington could use tariffs to force TSMCs to move to the US was fantastic and based on ignorance about the chip industry.
70% of TSMC’s revenue came from North America last year, but “there are few tips to go (in-person) to the US,” said Dan Nystedt, vice-chairman of Triorient, an Asia-based private investment company. It’s there. “Most ships to China, India and ET CETETERA, located inside iPhones and servers, then shipped to the US.”
Because US tariffs usually apply to finished products rather than subcomponents, it is “tricky” for US customs to target the overwhelming majority of TSMC, and TSMC aims to bring to US customers. That’s what the analyst said.
However, Trump’s tariff policies have already affected Taiwanese exporters. His first shot in the new trade war – 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico and Canada announced on February 2 but postponed until March 1, already from Foxconn and Quanta Computer. They forced a Taiwanese group. A line that drives away the share of lions in the world’s servers.
When Trump slapped tariffs on imports of a wide range of technology from China in his first term, the server makers moved a significant portion of their assembly operations to Mexico. “Depending on the final tariff level, some of it can be moved to the US or elsewhere,” said an executive at a contracted electronics manufacturer in Taiwan.
Trump’s approach has surprised businesses in the Taiwanese chip sector. Rick Tsai, CEO of MediaTek, one of the nation’s leading chip design houses, told investors last week that the company simulated the impact of US tariffs, but the effect of that effect was “highly unpredictable.” .
TSMC’s management faces delicate balancing acts.
Meanwhile, the company must convince Trump to respect the Biden administration’s subsidy deal, which requires Arizona’s investment plans to be made feasible.
Meanwhile, TSMC executives believe moving production too far into the US will undermine its business model and prove politically challenging.
“The company must be as sensitive to the Taiwanese government as it does to the US government and the US companies,” said someone close to TSMC.
An important fixation is TSMC’s Taiwan-based global research and development center.
The company was able to rapidly expand production with each new generation of processing technology, while maintaining a high yield or a percentage of chips produced without defects. Many of this successes have contributed to the practice of sending research engineers to the fab floor and fine-tuned tools.
Managers believe that they have options to move R&D to the US or to set up a parallel R&D organization.
Analysts said TSMC could accelerate the timetable at its Arizona plant, bringing advanced technology to the US and committing to additional investments as a compromise.
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The company’s first Arizona plant produces 4 nanometer chips in one generation into the most advanced technology of mass production in Taiwan. It has pledged to bring 2nm chip production to the US in 2028, about two years after its launch in Taiwan, and by 2030, it will bring Arizona’s third fab online.
The board could also decide to build capacity in the US for advanced packaging, a manufacturing stage that is critical for the cutting edge chips TSMC stores in Taiwan.
It will increase TSMC’s commitment to the US, but it will still maintain Taiwan as the epicenter of global chip manufacturing.
Observers believe it will help TSMC’s US clients convince Washington that such a move is sufficient to justify refraining from tariffs. “Apple, Nvidia, and other chip designers, they’ll bear the brunt of (chip tariffs),” Nystedt said.
