Well what’s the definition of invention . It’s not a linear process but an interactive and iterative process. As somebody who has been involved with scientific invention and product commercialisation it’s never one thing.
TSMC has invented new manufacturing princesses and new kinds of chip packaging (CoWoS) which allows it to smash the hell out of all the competitors. Also TSMC pretty much invented the business model of being a sole contract manufacturer for chips which then allows other companies to focus on design and marketing.
Did Apple invent the smartphone? Absolutely not (in fact I owned a Taiwanese Dopod touchscreen shitty smartphone years before the iPhone). Did it invent the first globally successful touchscreen smartphone and app platform, yes, which made it the world’s most valuable company at one point.
Just look at your thumbnail, the pyramid, under fabulous companies. What are those companies contributing to the ecosystem and what percentage of them are Taiwanese?
I have followed CoWoS for years. It’s very much a MIT technology and an extremely important and valuable invention in the chip industry.
Only now are the broader investing community waking up to how important it is.
A decade ago, chip-on-wafer-on-substrate technology, or CoWoS, was hardly known by the general public. Today, under the leadership of TSMC, this breakthrough has allowed Taiwanese packaging and equipment vendors to create the world’s most efficient advanced packaging supply chain, breaking the monopoly of global competitors. How has this invention made Taiwanese tech irreplaceable
Yes and No. LLMS depend on huge numbers of advanced GPUs to do the training and inference. Somebody needed to make enough very powerful GPus for the LLMs to work. Who made them???
For Microsoft to exist the PC had to exist first.
Answers on a postcard please : Who made ALL the advanced GPUs that AI depends on . And who couldn’t make them ??
The godfather of AI has repeated this many times, that only when computing power caught up could they see if LLMs would work or not. For decades he didn’t actually know if LLMs would be able to work in the real world.
Emmm seems like CoWoS, the most important new strategic process for semiconductors globally is completely dominated by Taiwanese companies. I guess they own thousands of patents for their inventions too. Three major Taiwanese companies called out here.
CoWoS packaging is so important and the rollout so huge that even my in laws with no background in electronics or manufacturing are working in these plants as they pay better than other factories , they are providing employment all over Taiwan with these Made in Taiwan inventions . The invention of CoWoS is almost single handedly reviving old heartland towns on the West coast of Taiwan.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is putting its full weight behind the expansion of its advanced packaging “CoWoS” facilities. From its phases one and two plants in Chiayi Science Park, part of Southern Taiwan Science Park, to Taichung’s Houli, Chunghua’s Erlin, Yunlin’s Huwei and Douliu, and Kaohsiung’s Dashe, TSMC’s partners Siliconware Precision Industries and the ASE Group are also ramping up production throughout Taiwan.
Over the past two years, ASE’s total expenditure neared NT$200 billion, a historic high.
In Yunlin’s Huwei and Douliu, Siliconware is stepping up recruitment to bring young workers back to their hometowns. A youthful employee who has worked in nearby Mailiao opines that compared to the petrochemical industry, the semiconductor sector shows more potential for future growth and attractive employee benefits; this ultimately convinced him to change jobs.
I have made great returns from learning about this and investing in these Taiwanese inventions .
Seminal inventions are foundational, groundbreaking innovations that create new industries or technologies, such as the printing press or artificial intelligence. In contrast, improvement inventions (or incremental innovations) refine existing technology to increase utility, efficiency, or appeal, such as updating smartphones or 3-point seat belts.
1. Seminal Inventions (Breakthrough)
Definition: These are pioneering inventions that shift the technological landscape and introduce a “new-to-the-world” product, process, or system.
Characteristics: High risk, high impact, and often form the basis for future patents (prior art).
Examples:
The Internet: A collaborative invention connecting billions.
The Printing Press: Enabled rapid production of texts, sparking the Enlightenment.
Steam Engines: A transformative technology mentioned in history.
Semiconductors: The foundation for modern computers.
2. Improvement Inventions (Incremental)
Definition: These inventions make small, ongoing, and positive changes to an existing product, process, or service.
Characteristics: Lower risk, consistent advancement, focusing on performance, cost reduction, and user experience.
TLDR: Taiwan is world-class at improvement inventions but has yet to create any seminal inventions.
Oh sorry, I meant patents and other advanced processes that could be patented but it’s better to keep it a trade secret than have some other company legally make something almost the same.
Lithium-ion batteries were developed through the, cumulatively, Nobel Prize-winning work of M. Stanley Whittingham, John B. Goodenough, and Akira Yoshino. While Whittingham created the first functional lithium battery in the 1970s, Goodenough doubled its capacity in 1980, and Yoshino made it commercially viable in 1985 by removing pure lithium.
Both co-founders. Both fiduciaries of a 501(c)(3) charity. They directed OpenAI to commit $20+ billion to a company in which they both hold personal undisclosed equity.
Cerebras valuation tripled. The IPO is the cash-out.
California charitable-trust law calls this self-dealing.
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