With an unprecedented huge investment, TSMC has become "cannon fodder", and Zhang Zhongmou feels helpless
TSMC's leadership in the global chip industry.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as TSMC) was founded in 1987 and headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, which is the world's largest wafer foundry and is known as the global chip manufacturing industry"Leader"。
TSMC started late, but the pace of development is amazing. In just over ten years, TSMC has rapidly grown into the world's leading chip foundry company with excellent technology and quality assurance. TSMC's biggest advantage lies in its leading manufacturing technology, which has fully mastered the world's most advanced 5nm process technology. This allows TSMC to provide state-of-the-art foundry services to the world's leading chip companies such as Apple, Qualcomm, and Huawei.
It can be said that the world's most advanced mobile phone and computer chips are more or less from TSMC's production lines. Because of this, TSMC's share of the global chip foundry market has exceeded 50%, achieving a dominant position. Professionals commented that if you want to obtain a large number of high-quality wafers, you must rely on TSMC, which is like mainland companies that want to obtain the protection of advanced technology, they must go over"Huguo Mountain", so industry insiders affectionately call TSMC as"The isolated island protects the country's mountain"。
Although China's integrated circuit industry has developed rapidly in recent years, and leading integrated circuit companies are also stepping up independent research and development, in many fields, we still have to rely on TSMC's advanced technology to achieve mass production. TSMC's core position in the global integrated circuit industry chain is self-evident. If we want to accelerate the development of the wafer industry, we must face up to TSMC's strength and its leading position in the global wafer industry.
TSMC's construction of a factory in the United States has triggered new contradictions.
In recent years, the competition and confrontation between China and the United States in the field of science and technology have become increasingly fierce"Tech wars"It has become the main battlefield of the two countries. In this context, TSMC chose to accept the invitation of the United States to build a series of factories in the United States, triggering a new conflict between TSMC and the two sides of the strait.
TSMC's large-scale investment in the United States to build factories is objectively equivalent to a show of goodwill in the United States, which will undoubtedly alienate TSMC's customers and markets in the mainland. The mainland is TSMC's largest market, and the loss of the mainland means that TSMC will directly lose a lot of profits. This kind of business decision with political considerations has greatly reduced TSMC's image in the mainland.
At the same time, TSMC did not achieve the expected returns in the United States. The United States promised to give TSMC tens of billions of dollars in subsidies for building factories, but the chip bill passed by the US Congress shows that TSMC can only receive $3.9 billion in subsidies, which is a huge difference from the promise. Intel received more than $20 billion in subsidies, which is undoubtedly unfair treatment for TSMC.
Due to various perfidy acts of the United States, TSMC's investment in the United States has been postponed. According to sources, TSMC has decided to stop applying for U.S. subsidies and postpone the project to build a factory in the United States for a year. It can be seen that TSMC and the United States"Honeymoon phase"It's over, and the contradictions are becoming more and more acute. As a result, TSMC faces the dilemma of facing both the alienation of the mainland market and the distrust of the United States. How TSMC reconciles these contradictions will directly affect its future fate.
TSMC faces a dilemma.
TSMC is torn between the mainland market and the United States, which directly leads to a sharp decline in its stock price** and market capitalization. According to reports, since some time ago, TSMC's stock price has been **, and its market value has evaporated by a staggering $77 billion, or about 560 billion yuan, which is the largest decline in market value of Asian companies. TSMC is in an unprecedented predicament.
Professional analysts believe that this time TSMC is likely to move from the peak to the turning point of the world. First of all, TSMC has long relied on the mainland market, but in recent years, the mainland integrated circuit industry has made remarkable progress, especially in the field of manufacturing, Chinese companies have achieved mass production of 7nm process integrated circuits, which means that the mainland's dependence on TSMC will be reduced.
Second, TSMC did not recognize the situation and continued to underestimate the strength of the mainland wafer industry. It misassessed the innovation capabilities of Chinese companies, insisted on siding with the United States, and hindered the development of tablets on the mainland. As a result, it became a pawn of the United States to contain China.
In the end, under the manipulation of the United States, TSMC fell into a dilemma: it lost the most important market in Chinese mainland and did not get the return promised by the United States. This dilemma may lead to a decline in TSMC's position in the global chip industry.
TSMC did not understand the general situation, underestimated the strength of the mainland, and finally destroyed the Great Wall in the United States to curry favor with the mainland. This is undoubtedly a major tragedy for TSMC.