Actually it’s exactly the analog. Everyone thought too important too big to fail. And yet they collapsed like a pack cards.
While those companies failed, plenty of other companies received bailout funds and we’re there to pick up the pieces of the failed companies - ie the industry was saved. Who would pick up the pieces in the u.s. if intel failed? TI? 
You talk like Intel is Nokia. Wrong
Have ever a country closed down a coal mine in war?
Intel equity is dirt cheap, and shares are up by 50% in 2 months or what? Yes i agree TSMC is more specialized and is world best foundry, but politics comes before engineering.
Having said that, nothing stop Taiwan going towards Japanese bubble in 90s with 90 PE ratio.
This is why i have 25% in Taiwanese equities
And Samsung was thinking it could overtake TSMC with a measly 100 Billion spread out over the next decade.
Holy crap. That’s about equal to their current revenue ($34 billion). Sure hope they already have the orders booked.
This is good news. Competition will make them work harder. Economy is win win
Announcement isn’t the same as doing.
True but this makes it seem like they have the orders already:
“TSMC expects to invest USD$100b over the next three years to increase capacity to support the manufacturing and R&D of advanced semiconductor technologies,” the company said in a statement responding to local media reports. “TSMC is working closely with our customers to address their needs in a sustainable manner.”
It’s smart to say this.
It discourages other companies from competing.
It makes customers think only TSMC will be able to reliably satisfy demand…
The investment will only be made against annual reviews of demand.
But they’ll have 2nm down years before the others. Why wouldn’t they be full?
And TSMC employees can kiss their profit sharing goodbye.
They will still be rewarded. They don’t want to lose them all to China.
TSMC will complain for sure, but for sure profit sharing will fall. There is a reserve fund that we use for bad times that we take out of good times that will lessen the blow. That said, stock price has little to do with profit sharing. When you get more capital expenditures or hire more people, the TSMC profit sharing drops. It has always been this way. It is Not unusual in crazy good stock years for profit sharing to fall.
That said, TSMC isn’t stupid and management has always been conservative. They aren’t just going to spend 100B. They need to be sure they fill 90% capacity of each fab. Foundries are not a “if you build it they will come” situation.
Their stock jumped 5% after the announcement.
Blomberg calls in “Intel’s latest Hail Mary.” For those of you who don’t watch American football,
Funny they have Roger Staubach’s picture. His daughter went to Ursuline high school in Dallas.
1 Like
Taiwan’s smaller semiconductor fabs are expanding. Powerchip last month, and now Nanya, which is part of Formosa Plastics.
1 Like
An unusual place to site their new wafer factory.
Possibly for water access.
Hainchu really is the best place for semiconductors in Taiwan. In no particular order.
- Hsinchu is close to Taipei the capital which is a plus in and of itself
- It’s relatively close to the biggest airport
- Has two of the best tech universities right next to it
- Land is not prohibitively expensive like Taipei
- Gets reasonable rain but usually less affected by typhoons
- is one of the least affected areas by earthquakes
Were it not for politics they would all come to Hsinchu
Hsinchu is maxed out though. A lot of factories going up everywhere…Taichung, Miaoli, Tainan and now even New Taipei City. As I mentioned I suspect the limitation is water supply first and then land and power .
1 Like