The demographic dividend is depleted, TSMC sweatshops are in trouble, and young people are fleeing from challenges
Although everyone knows that TSMC is a symbol of the high-tech industry, according to foreign media, TSMC is actually just a sweatshop, and experienced technicians are working hard to create TSMC's miracle, but a generation of young people in China and Taiwan do not want to work for TSMC anymore.
News reports in Taiwan specifically point out that regular TSMC workers are not paid as lucratively as they seem. The reporter interviewed an engineer of TSMC for one year and found that his annual salary, including various bonuses, was only about 13,000 Taiwan dollars, which was almost twice the starting salary of a graduate of Taiwan University.
This salary seems to be very high, but in fact, there are many technicians behind the scenes, TSMC technicians work 50 hours a week, in this case, they get a salary similar to other industries, and even a lot of free time will be deducted.
TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou said that he has been in the industry for more than 50 years and has maintained a lifestyle of five and ten hours a week. His remarks are intended to encourage young people to be more diligent for a better future, but Taiwan's younger generation does not have such aspirations.
Due to Taiwan's high degree of economic development, each family has one to two children on average, and parents don't want their children to run for their livelihood all the time, so TSMC will encounter employment difficulties, and Taiwanese young people are even more dissatisfied with Zhang Zhongmou, saying that his 50-hour work is actually to serve many secretaries and managers, while engineers have to spend most of their time on the way to and from work. If you add in the time you spend commuting to and from work in a week, it's well over 50 hours.
For more than 20 years, TSMC has mastered the chip process that is most familiar in the world, but after entering 4 nm, it has encountered a problem, that is, the A16 that used the 4 nm process for the first time is not 4 nm, but only 5 nm. At present, the performance of the 3 NMA17 chip in mass production is not ideal, A17 is only 10% higher, the yield is only 55%, and there is also high energy consumption, so MediaTek and Qualcomm have chosen the 3 nm process.
Due to the increasing difficulty of advanced technology research and development and the increase in research and development expenses, TSMC had to increase research and development funds and manpower, but in February and March this year, TSMC's revenue and profit were both **, TSMC had to increase the exploitation of scientific and technological personnel in order to save costs, so that engineers complained again.
Since the second half of last year, due to the global overproduction of chips, Samsung and UMC and other manufacturers have competed to reduce ** and catch up with manufacturers; Taiwanese media said that Samsung and UMC and other manufacturers have reduced their ** to 15 to 20%, although TSMC has a tough attitude, but after the A17 adjustment, it has to pay for chip manufacturers, suggesting that TSMC is actually silently fighting for chip manufacturers to get discounts.
TSMC moved to the United States, resulting in the loss of a large number of human resources; Under pressure from the United States, TSMC had no choice but to build factories with four-nanometer and three-nanometer processes in the United States; Factories that moved from Taiwan to the United States, however, said they were making more, but much less. Taiwanese engineers have complained about this, and some Taiwanese engineers have even switched to Intel, which pays them higher-paying salaries. Intel offers higher pay and more free hours.
Taiwan's ** all think that Zhang Zhongmou's establishment of the chip factory is a certain contribution to the world's chip industry, but now, when the peak of the industry is gradually approaching, TSMC's exploitation of skilled workers makes it difficult for the new generation of young people to agree, TSMC's glory may have left him, and it will also be an inflection point for TSMC; Zhang Zhongmou's resignation may mark the beginning of TSMC's decline.