More than 1,000 engineers charter flights to the United States, TSMC is going to the United States?

Recently, some Taiwanese media reported that since November, a large number of TSMC engineers took their families with them and took chartered flights to Fab 21 in Arizona, USA. engineer.

According to Zhang Zhongmou, even if the cost is 50% higher, TSMC does not rule out moving part of its advanced production capacity to the United States for production. And this part of the advanced process includes 3nm or even below the process.

So many people said that TSMC is going to run away, going to the United States?

Why is TSMC moving so many engineers to the United States? The purpose is still for the 5nm fab in Arizona, which is Fab 21.

The machine entering ceremony of Fab21's first fab (5nm fab) will be held in December, after which trial production and mass production will begin.

At present, in the United States, there are actually no engineers for the 5nm process, because the most advanced process in the United States is only Intel's 7nm process, so TSMC can't recruit people at all, and has to send them from Taiwan.

In addition, TSMC will also build a second fab in Arizona, the 3nm fab. According to TSMC’s plan, the progress of this fab will be faster than that of the 5nm fab. The foundation has been built and it is expected that there will be an organic fab as soon as next year. Taiwan enters the factory, and then conducts trial production and mass production.

For this reason, TSMC must also prepare engineers. After all, the United States does lack advanced process engineers, which is an area they have never been involved in.

In addition, according to the media, once the machine is in operation, it will not stop for 24 hours, while American workers are demanding and unwilling to work overtime, let alone 24-hour shifts, so they have to send people from Taiwan to let the factory run first. stand up.

In fact, this is exactly what the United States thinks. What the United States lacks is not only advanced technology, but also fabs. What the United States lacks is not only technology, but also talents.

What the United States hopes is that these fabs can bring capital, technology, and talents after they land in the United States. Only in this way can the American chip manufacturing industry be revived. TSMC sent people to the United States, which is one of the goals of the United States.

Of course, sending more than 1,000 engineers to the United States does not mean that TSMC is going to run away and move to the United States. After all, 1,000 people are nothing compared to TSMC's more than 100,000 employees.

But if things go on like this, TSMC is slowly bleeding after continuously moving talents away. After 5 years, or even 10 years, it will eventually have serious consequences.

More importantly, advanced technology is no longer only in Taiwan, and Taiwan will slowly lose its most important leading position in the semiconductor industry chain. The impact on the industry chain is far more serious than TSMC's move.