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TSMC plans to halt chip supplies to Huawei in 2 months

asia.nikkei.com

241–250 of 433 posts

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

#241
post #107

I'm actually cautiously excited about new competition in high end semiconductor fabrication. Huawei and China won't just sit around twiddling their thumbs, they've got to manufacture chips somehow/somewhere.

What you missed is the massive global interconnected supply chain that goes into building the fab (not the building, but the process equipment and software). China’s isolationism will cause massive pains to do it all in house. If they can, we are all fucked.

Guys you are really panicking here. No way China is going to do everything in-house. Crucial technology? For sure, but definitely not everything. China's isolationism is imposed on it by the United States (and not only to China, but to other countries as well as businesses everywhere is forced to NOT do business), and it is going to use all weights to find ways to do business with other countries.

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

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's so funny. ASML holds the market for a reason, this is not so simple. You could probably do it on a Friday night but the Chinese may take a bit longer than that.

China has been able to develop advanced stealth technology, quantum computing, supersonic combustion engine, and more, after the state decided that they were priorities that had to be developed. I don't see why EUV would be impossible for them to replicate. The list of times when we (and I too) thought that they could not catch up in a certain technology is long, and I won't make that bet anymore. The resources of th…

Yea, it will get done, but it will take a bunch of years.

One of the best things I feel like I've learned in systems eng is that this stuff is just too disorganized and difficult. It's not enough to steal all of the plans - you're not going to make sense of them and they don't have the rejiggered edition Jimmy's WAR from last Tuesday.

IP theft occurs because employees are owned for years at a time and are able to slowly push useful tidbits across the proprietary barrier.

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

#243
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is neither a stable democracy (incredible levels of partisanship and voter suppression) nor does it have an independent judiciary (justices even in SCOTUS mostly vote around party lines on issues of voting ie power). The most popular media network is Fox News which is openly subservient to the President. The uptick or racism is not minor either. Racism has been embedded in the American way of life and the figh…

Tell that to hundreds of thousands of Indian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Philippino, Taiwanese, etc immigrants that work here in the tech industry. I am a little bit speechless at all this vile of anti-US propaganda. It is insane .

It's really not. It's not propoganda, either. It's the truth.

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

#244
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...

it's really troublesome that every country is actively trying to create chaos in other countries. I'm wondering why this is the case.

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

#245
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming when you say China you mean the UN recognized "China", then they do not have any control over TSMC.

UN views Taiwan as a province of PRC

But it is not, and if the PRC tried doing that there would be a major military conflict that would result in TSMC not existing for the PRC's taking.

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

#246
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In China, even a billionaire can be crushed by the state - for corruption, for being a power rival or for speaking out against state policy. In the US, a certain level of person has nearly carte blanche against scandal, against being accused of crimes or pursuing pathological policy positions. Of course, in the US, a small person's life can be snuffed out if they annoy the wrong cop and their life can be made miserab…

Oh come on man (woman?), this comment is completely disingenuous. You're comparing 2 completely different things. Is US / the West fair? Not by a long shot. Tons of shitty stuff happening, from George Floyd, to Harvey Weinstein, to Jeffrey Epstein, to Julian Assange. But at least we know about them. But compared to China? You won't even hear about the "small person's life". I'm sure life in China can be great, unless…

That might be true for you, but that clearly isn't true for everyone. I know people in HK (mostly elderly) who are fine with China coming and taking over. They see security and wealth.

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

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren’t directly controlled by the government though. And you have plenty of organisations like NPR and PBS which are truly independent. Also anyone can create a news site or blog without worrying about it being blocked.

PBS and NPR are in fact directly controlled by the government. It’s interesting that those are your two examples of gold standard independent media.

They are both independent non-profits which rely on a mix of private and public funds.

Not sure through what mechanism you think they are directly controlled.

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

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ranking countries by an opaque "power index" (sorry, "PwrIndx", because vowels cost more or something?), and there is no description of what this entails other than "over 50 individual factors". The only thing I could find to drill down on contains effectively a bare listing of things such as army size, population size, number of tanks, oil reserves, etc.--which emphasizes quantity over quality. So you might und…

Yeah, not sure about that power index calculation myself. But I think it would be very hard to compare things on quality. Like take the example of air power. Sure F-22, F-35, B-2/B-21 combination probably beats any other force. But after that, it gets murky as every country will hype its own inventory. I think PRC still purchases some of the planes and parts from them, so I guess Russian made planes might have an edg…

It's worth pointing out that there's a distinction to be made between having modern military kit and being able to effectively use it. This is a problem that most notably plagues the Arab militaries, in that they have the funds to buy the good stuff, but they are unwilling to invest in the training (or the operational independence) to effectively use it [1].

I'm not sure how modern Russia and China fare in this regard, compared to each other or to Western powers. Both countries have definitely showed signs in the past decade or so of trying to push through military reforms and adding more junior officers compared to senior officers.

[1] Classic case study: first Gulf War, where the casualty ratio was a lopsided 100:1, despite the Iraqi military having rough numerical parity and access to modern kit.

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

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you missed is the massive global interconnected supply chain that goes into building the fab (not the building, but the process equipment and software). China’s isolationism will cause massive pains to do it all in house. If they can, we are all fucked.

Guys you are really panicking here. No way China is going to do everything in-house. Crucial technology? For sure, but definitely not everything. China's isolationism is imposed on it by the United States (and not only to China, but to other countries as well as businesses everywhere is forced to NOT do business), and it is going to use all weights to find ways to do business with other countries.

China's isolationism is mainly self-imposed. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and most of the modern internet is banned there. It has very strict currency controls that prevent its citizens from transferring funds out. Foreign businesses are very restricted in what they're allowed to do and what they can own. And if they make money, it can be very hard to get it out.

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

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is the opposite, western expats in China get paid much more and are afforded much greater legal latitude. They get paid like kings and mostly live like kings. Make money in China and retire elsewhere has been going on since the 90s. It's how China developed with western expertise.

> They get paid like kings and mostly live like kings. Careful with present tense, things have taken a stark turn for the worse in terms of the day-to-day reality of western foreigners in China, and it already was not spectacular (minders checking in on your domicile every couple weeks or month, basically zero standing in legal disputes including routine contract disputes).

TBH, these are exceedingly fringe scenarios that doesn't affect majority of expats living in China, i.e. certain motorcycle vloggers who got on the government shitlist. For the purpose of this article, if you're a sought after silicon engineer, you'll essentially have diplomatic immunity. China is going ham courting foreign talent in strategic field like 3x salary for entry level position, building churches for Korean silicon engineers. That said, things have recognizably declined for segments of expats in China in the last 10 years, Xi's policies is one component, but another driver is local elites have usurped expats at the top of the social hierarchy, plus you have a lot more bitter failed expats. Compared to 15-20 years ago when the expat population were almost exclusively professionals from multinationals instead of English teachers / losers back home. Sure, the fun, unregulated, drink with local corrupt official days are over. But if you're a professional who just want to enjoy a big paycheck and Chinese culture, you'll be fine. The company will take care of you.
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