Taiwan's TSMC, After US Request, Says It Won't Leak Sensitive Info (reuters.com) 41
Taiwan chipmaker TSMC will not leak any sensitive company information as part of a White House request for details on the ongoing semiconductor crisis that has forced cuts to U.S. auto production, the company's general counsel said. From a report: The White House made the request to automakers, chip companies and others last month. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said a voluntary request for information within 45 days on the chips crisis would boost supply chain transparency and that if companies did not answer the voluntary request "then we have other tools in our tool box that require them to give us data." The issue has caused concern in Taiwan that companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple supplier, would have to hand over sensitive data. "Don't worry. We definitely will not leak our company's sensitive information, especially that related to customers," TSMC's general counsel Sylvia Fang said on Wednesday, in comments provided by the company on Thursday. "Customer trust is one of the key elements to our company's success," she added. "If this is to resolve supply chain issues, we will see how best we can do to help them. We have done so many things. For the part of auto chips, we've tried to increase output and prioritize auto chips to a certain degree."
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That's bad and all, but really the problem is generating the perception that there's a global conspiracy to slow down semiconductor production. The reality is well-known, and no sham investigation is going to reveal anything that we don't already know.
My library has a 3D printer. If the US Government thinks chip fabrication is so essential to our economy, they should build their own.
Re:Ah yes (Score:5, Insightful)
When a country outsources most manufacturing to other countries, this is what you can expect. I was warning about this trend when I started building and selling gaming computers in the late 1990s. By the mid 2000s it was obvious that the US was on a perilous course to offshore most chip manufacturing, and indeed, most electronics manufacturing. If all shipments across the Pacific were halted, the US economy would probably collapse. Seems like a national security issue to me.
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> When a country outsources most manufacturing to other countries, this is what you can expect.
Bwoop bwoop nationalism detected on Slashdot. How dare you not embrace globalism. In-sourcing production is akin to nationalism and we all know nationalism sounds like fascism. "It doesn't matter if it's critical infrastructure for military. In fact that's better because then if the US tries to use their military against another country, the global community can turn off resources." fark.com/politics
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Totally agree. There are so many places in the supply chain where things have broken down. It goes back to last year when there were shutdowns pretty much all over the world. So the production factories were halting operations. Then when they cranked things back up later, few folks seem to realize that semiconductor chips aren't created in like a day or two. Execs from most semiconductor companies have explained how long it takes for production to get to the point of regularly completing large orders again.
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There doesn't seem to be any chip shortage if you're trying to buy a computer, an SSD, a tablet, a phone, etc.
It tends to work that way if you continue to place orders. Guess who stopped placing orders and now has to wait their turn?
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The USA accounts for 5% of the worlds population, perhaps the other 95% have a different view to US "rights"
Threatening the people who supply chips to the majority of US tech seems like attempted suicide.
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The US extends its reach by various means, for example controlling financial transactions so that they have to be cleared through US companies and are subject to US law.
China and the EU are working to dismantle that and replace those systems with ones under their control, but for now the US can certainly make life difficult for foreign companies.
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Bottom line is, the USA needs the world more than the world needs the USA.
In the 1950s the USA accounted for about 80% of the entire worlds GDP, now its around 18% and falling.
"Peak USA" was in the 1950s-1960s, but since the mid 1970s, the economy has been shrinking, just look at all the closed manufacturing.
US arrogance and entitlement will simply kill the USA faster as more alternatives become available (Other Asian economies
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I always found the "my country is the best" thing weird. The UK is shit anyway, but the thing that makes really weird is that it's such obvious propaganda. Why would you believe it when it's clearly not true and very obviously designed to make you act against your own interests?
Re: Ah yes (Score:1)
Lifelong indoctrination beginning in schools and continuing in media.
And that's definitely not just in the US, most countries do the same. But not every country has a Hollywood....
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EU effort ended with confiscation of foreign accounts in Cyprus as a part of bailout package. Today, we no longer even pretend that there's any chance that euro is going to be a global reserve currency. It's now basically forever stuck as a regional one.
Chinese efforts to this ended with their aborted attempts at floating yuan a bit less than a decade ago as well.
Which means that while US is less and less agent of stability and more and more agent of instability in the world as it continues to decouple from
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Nobody was threatened, moron.
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There are two fundamental problems with your argument. First, China isn't a directly dependent state on US for its immediate national security, AND it's significantly harder to spy on, unlike Taiwan which is directly dependent on US for its security and is in the middle of multi-decade political campaign to get US leadership to recognize it and give it military aid.
Second and more importantly, in case of Wuhan lab, Chinese themselves didn't want the answers. This has to do with face culture in China, where
NFT in 3...2... (Score:2)
If I give you $3.19 in pennies and a decade's worth of accumulated belly button lint mounted in a gold-leafed shadow box, will you go back to eating your toenails at home?
NFT in 3...2...
US auto addiction (Score:1, Flamebait)
Great, more strong arming of private companies because our country is so addicted to automobiles.
Maybe the Secretary of Commerce should try walking to work.
Its not really TSMC problem (Score:1)
US auto makers pulled their orders and the lines filled up with other paying customers.
Why are we threatening the Shop keeper cause a bully wants to cut line after they changed their mind
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Why are we threatening the Shop keeper cause a bully wants to cut line after they changed their mind
Because you are the even bigger bully.
TSMC is just doing PR (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't a big deal - the US government is doing its job and companies like TSMC are just covering their ass in public while price gouging its customers in private.
Suppliers better get their act together or the US will heavily subsidize industries that don't meet demand. International "free trade" will be a thing of the past and the US military mission to protect it will be unnecessary.
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Do you think the US government should simply stick its head in the sand and do nothing about supply chain disruptions?
How is asking TSMC for voluntarily providing information about production authoritarian?
They asked that the data be provided voluntarily and pointed out that they could have required it. Remember - TSMC is asking the US government for subsidies and tax breaks to build capacity in the US. The US also provides significant support for Taiwan.
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How is asking TSMC for voluntarily providing information about production authoritarian?
Because it is? Are you dumb or what?
The US also provides significant support for Taiwan.
Taiwan is a country, TSMC is a company.
You know the difference, or not?
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There was a time when the US helped to set up the GATT and then the WTO but every time an American company was sanctioned for breaking the rules, they ignored them entirely.
The whole world knows that when America says "free trade" they mean "give us what we want, now".
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>The whole world knows that when America says "free trade" they mean "give us what we want, now".
Yep, and if you don't, we'll make it ourselves and then compete with y
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...we'll make it ourselves and then compete with you.
But you won't which is the whole point here. American companies outsourced everything to cheap labour countries.
The other problem is that you keep using terms like "we" and "us" when the vast corporations pushing all this stuff don't have anything to do with you.
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The whole world knows that when America says "free trade" they mean "give us what we want, now".
You forgot: and better hurry up!
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Even after the US semiconductor industry is recovered, China will still be China, and the US will still protect Taiwan as a check on Chinese growth into the Pacific.
We have a long history in the Pacific. It has nothing to do with semiconductors.
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Countries defending themselves is not a matter of "dictating terms" to their neighbors.
China can't attack Taiwan and also have access to the US market. It's really that simple.
Yeah, it would be better if the US manufacturing recovers before an economic crisis. Time will tell. But if disruptions are the result of a war against an ally, the US government can simply order companies to build factories.
The idea that any of this has anything to do with "going abroad and fix[ing] another country's problems" is jus
This was the perfect time for the US to do this. (Score:1)
Huawei 2.0 (Score:1)
Go look at how Taiwanese media report this, chips for autos is just an excuse. Many in TW are viewing this as Huawei 2.0, or Alstom 2.0 (see "The American Trap"), some analyst think it likely that the ultimate aim of the US govt is to takeover key parts of TSMC just like they did to Alstom. I think TSMC executives would avoid travelling anywhere near US or Canada now, so they won't become Meng 2.0.
Considering how US is reliant on TSMC chips, it is not surprising for US policy makers to decide they need to
What's the plan? (Score:2)
What is TSMC's plan for when China invades?