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TSMC plans to halt chip supplies to Huawei in 2 months

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: TSMC plans to halt chip supplies to Huawei in 2 months

#3
article conveniently doesnt mention the fact that huawei's 5g chip isnt sourced from an American design, rather its the Balong 5000 which has been around since january of 2019. the 16 nm chipset can easily be cranked out from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) in mainland china, which is capable of 14nm runs. barring that, GlobalFoundries as they havent expressed any serious interest in Americas trade war witch hunt masquerading as a security concern.

Re: TSMC plans to halt chip supplies to Huawei in 2 months

#5
post #2

Doesn't seem to worry them too much: https://www.thestreet.com/investing/tsmc-posts-record-q2-pro...

We do seem to be in a secular upswing in semiconductor demand, while TSMC remains the last foundry standing at the 7nm node. It seems like Samsung and Intel alternatives are bit too captive (internally competitive) for a large mobile phone producer. I don't think it's about actual 5G chips themselves, it's about ARM processors and mobile SoCs.

It's doubtful to me that UMC and Global Foundries will catch up, but I do wonder at the long term effects. There are many billions of Yuan to spend on solving this problem. In the past they could get enough of the right people to move to China as they did with OLED.

Re: TSMC plans to halt chip supplies to Huawei in 2 months

#6
post #4

Why does this feel like the USA cutting Japan off from metal and oil shipments months before WW2?

If foundations of geopolitics is anything real, then pitting the US vs China would be the ultimate best outcome. The book believes China is the true threat to Russia and "must, to the maximum degree possible, be dismantled".

As secondary goal would be the disruption of the US which also has been propping China up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics#Con...

Re: TSMC plans to halt chip supplies to Huawei in 2 months

#7
post #4

Why does this feel like the USA cutting Japan off from metal and oil shipments months before WW2?

I would assume because you want it to. The worlds are quite different, foremost being that there is no active war going on. Is there something more substantiative than “Trade controls in Asia” that is being drawn on to inform this opinion?

Re: TSMC plans to halt chip supplies to Huawei in 2 months

#8
post #5
post #2

Doesn't seem to worry them too much: https://www.thestreet.com/investing/tsmc-posts-record-q2-pro...

We do seem to be in a secular upswing in semiconductor demand, while TSMC remains the last foundry standing at the 7nm node. It seems like Samsung and Intel alternatives are bit too captive (internally competitive) for a large mobile phone producer. I don't think it's about actual 5G chips themselves, it's about ARM processors and mobile SoCs. It's doubtful to me that UMC and Global Foundries will catch up, but I do…

But you see, money can’t buy love.

Re: TSMC plans to halt chip supplies to Huawei in 2 months

#9
post #5
post #2

Doesn't seem to worry them too much: https://www.thestreet.com/investing/tsmc-posts-record-q2-pro...

We do seem to be in a secular upswing in semiconductor demand, while TSMC remains the last foundry standing at the 7nm node. It seems like Samsung and Intel alternatives are bit too captive (internally competitive) for a large mobile phone producer. I don't think it's about actual 5G chips themselves, it's about ARM processors and mobile SoCs. It's doubtful to me that UMC and Global Foundries will catch up, but I do…

> In the past they could get enough of the right people to move to China as they did with OLED.

TSMC was founded by a "returnee" as well. Obviously he and his family were rather anti-communist (his father was a ROC official) so he fled from mainland China to Hongkong then the US during the Chinese Civil War. He built a career at TI then returned to China (Taiwan) and founded TSMC when the government was investing in the development of hitech industries. [1]

There are quite a few similar examples on both sides (communists and nationalists). For example, and that's quite a twist of history, the 'father' of the PRC missile and space program was an MIT professor, Caltech professor, co-founder of JPL and was even involved in project Manhattan... Then he returned to mainland China in 1955 [2].

These days there are many more mainland Chinese in the West and Taiwan who work in the semiconductor industry and it's not uncommon for them to return to mainland China to take key positions.

There is no doubt that they'll catch up. The only question is how fast.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Chang [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Xuesen

Re: TSMC plans to halt chip supplies to Huawei in 2 months

#10
post #6
post #4

Why does this feel like the USA cutting Japan off from metal and oil shipments months before WW2?

If foundations of geopolitics is anything real, then pitting the US vs China would be the ultimate best outcome. The book believes China is the true threat to Russia and "must, to the maximum degree possible, be dismantled". As secondary goal would be the disruption of the US which also has been propping China up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics#Con...

Yeah, but Russia is so isolated these days that pitting anything non-Russian vs. something else non-Russian is almost guaranteed to be advantageous to Russia.

That also doesn't change the fact that long term, China is the biggest threat to liberal democracies. In terms of geopolitics, Russia is actually quite complementary to China due to its large area having an abundance of resources to feed Chinese factories and both countries being authoritarian governments.

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