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TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

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Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is categorically NOT a huge win for the stock. This is all happening because of US subsidies. The US has more expensive workers who are overall worse at the job and don't have the expertise to be compete with the people in Taiwan. The subsidies only make this a viable option for political reasons. The decision to create a fab in Arizona is strictly speaking unprofitable and essentially a economically irrational mo…

I see this as a bargaining chip between US and China. Both sides "win".

Possibly. But tsmc itself loses by moving the fabs to a much more expensive area.

Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#372
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US has more expensive workers who are overall worse at the job and don't have the expertise to be compete with the people in Taiwan. Putting the rest of your statement aside, this is a very silly thing to say. The United States invented the IC and started silicon age. Integrated circuits made in Silicon Valley were literally on the moon at the same time that Taiwan was still an incredibly poor country living un…

Things change. As of right now the US can't compete. In the past the US could compete, but that doesn't speak to the status quo. In the future the US may change but this is unknown. It may very well be the US will never recover. This is a realistic possibility. Either way the status quo is that the US is currently inferior to Asia in terms of semiconductors.

Well, that is certainly the Chinese government's take on things.

Your posts suggest that the US should just give up and let Asia -- more specifically China -- dominate semiconductors forever because US workers are lazy, fat, and stupid. Am I characterizing your position correctly?

Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is categorically NOT a huge win for the stock. This is all happening because of US subsidies. The US has more expensive workers who are overall worse at the job and don't have the expertise to be compete with the people in Taiwan. The subsidies only make this a viable option for political reasons. The decision to create a fab in Arizona is strictly speaking unprofitable and essentially a economically irrational mo…

Short-sighted comment. You know how you develop expertise? That’s right, you invest in it.

Long sigted. The investment starts from scratch. Why not invest in some places cheaper? Why not invest in a place that has better expertise?

Overall the long term vision is to wrestle some control away from China. That is the long term bet the US and tsmc are ultimately making and what's driving the decision. But economically this is a bad bet.

Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#374
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what you're seeing. Move semiconductor industry out of Taiwan so then when China takes it, disruption is lessened.

the issue is "is it healthy for the country" which being taken over by china is not, so you aren't really addressing either the question I was responding to, or my question.

Well that's debatable. It depends entirely on how you define "healthy". We tend to look at things from a Western perspective, but that's rather presumptive isn't it?

Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#375
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US has more expensive workers who are overall worse at the job and don't have the expertise to be compete with the people in Taiwan. Putting the rest of your statement aside, this is a very silly thing to say. The United States invented the IC and started silicon age. Integrated circuits made in Silicon Valley were literally on the moon at the same time that Taiwan was still an incredibly poor country living un…

Things change. As of right now the US can't compete. In the past the US could compete, but that doesn't speak to the status quo. In the future the US may change but this is unknown. It may very well be the US will never recover. This is a realistic possibility. Either way the status quo is that the US is currently inferior to Asia in terms of semiconductors.

IBM and Intel are competitive with TSMC and Samsung when it comes to ability to cram transistors onto wafers. This idea that only Taiwan/TSMC knows how to fab is light years from reality.

Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#376

Great news for the US. Great news for Apple, AMD, and Nvidia. Not so good news for Taiwan. The fact that the whole tech world is dependent on chips produced in Hsinchu is a huge advantage for the safety of Taiwan. Moving the fabs and talent further away from the island will not benefit the people of Taiwan at all. TSMC with its global influence has been a huge factor for guaranteeing safety of the island and peace in…

It is categorically NOT a huge win for the stock. This is all happening because of US subsidies. The US has more expensive workers who are overall worse at the job and don't have the expertise to be compete with the people in Taiwan. The subsidies only make this a viable option for political reasons. The decision to create a fab in Arizona is strictly speaking unprofitable and essentially a economically irrational mo…

[deleted]

Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apple spent something like a half-trillion on share buybacks. They could have averted this crisis a decade ago by thinking strategically. I don't understand the fixation on this. Share buybacks strengthen the stock price of the company, which the company can leverage in the future to raise more capital if needed (by re-releasing new shares to the market). From that perspective, they are better than dividends. Beside…

"Share buybacks strengthen the stock price of the company, which the company can leverage in the future to raise more capital if needed (by re-releasing new shares to the market). From that perspective, they are better than dividends." You are confused. A 100 dollar company with 100 shares outstanding, each worth 1 dollar, is not better able to raise capital than a 100 dollar company with 50 shares outstanding, each…

[deleted]

Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#378
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Apple worth more than ARM and TSMC?

Software

I know the answer. It was rhetorical.

Also you missed that the closer you get to the consumer, the more units you sell. There's less purchasers of tools than consumers.

Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#379
post #90

Hopefully we'll do something like that here in the EU too. We're experiencing the hard way how's like depending on the energy and resources of warmongering criminal dictators; it would be wise to start moving away from technological dependence on China asap.

Actually, Europe is doing pretty good due to having a monopoly on making chip making machines via ASML in the Netherlands which relies heavily on Carl Zeiss in Germany. Fun fact by the way, at some point Japan and Europe were very close in state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing while the US didn’t have the capabilities anymore because it was outcompeted by Japan. At that point, the US donated funds and 20 years…

> Chip War

Thanks for the reference, just bought Chip War.

Re: TSMC to make 4nm chips in Arizona for Apple, AMD, Nvidia

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After flooding took out most of the world's magnetic hard drive manufacturing capacity, it seemed clear that absolute efficiency in the immediate sense was the enemy of a robust long term manufacturer. I'm not sure why human v human threats are being heeded when nature v human ones were not, but diversifying your locations absolutely makes sense. There are some geographic constraints to where locating fabs make sense…

Vietnam, Korea, many parts of Asia. The US is a arbitrary choice. It is done because of the shared rivalry the US has with Taiwan against China.

I think you are certainly right, but why focus on Asia exclusively as a second fab location? One earthquake could flood all of them. As I said, oil giants in the middle east trying to diversify seems pretty ideal. I only suggested EU for the knowledge workers and it faces a different ocean.
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