Chip decoupling risks costly failure, TSMC founder warns APEC
TAIPEI -- Efforts by nations to bring chip production onshore could backfire, failing to achieve self-sufficiency despite massive cost outlays, warned Morris Chang, the founder of top contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
"If no one says anything about this, it could turn out to be terrible," Chang told a news conference Friday following an informal Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, where he served as Taiwan's envoy.
"What may happen is that after hundreds of billions and many years have been spent, the result will still be a not-quite-self-sufficient and a high-cost supply chain," Chang said.
The warning from one of the global semiconductor industry's most respected figures comes as the U.S., Europe, Japan and China look to increase production at home, offering government aid to ensure that chips -- which power devices from consumer electronics to military's and space technology -- remain within their borders.
Chang said he agrees that chips that are vital to national security should be made domestically, but "it will make more sense that all the other civilian-use semiconductors should be traded freely internationally."
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Chip-decoupling-risks-costly-failure-TSMC-founder-warns-APEC
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