CC Wei attended the National Taiwan University EMBA Baichuan Lecture tonight and gave a speech titled "If there was no TSMC." His witty and humorous speech not only made the audience laugh, but also made the participants understand through a 30-minute speech why TSMC's latest process cannot be moved to other countries and the world. If there is no TSMC, not only will people not be able to replace their Apple phones, but even refrigerators, televisions, cars and other products will be affected.
Since TSMC officially set up a factory in the United States in 2021, many people in the market have been worried about whether TSMC will bring the latest technology to the United States, making Taiwan no longer have an advantage.
Before answering the market's concerns, CC Wei first talked about, "If you want to repeat the TSMC, how long will it take? Not long, you can build a production line in 2.5 years." However, this 2.5 years is estimated with prerequisites, "there must be enough land, water, electricity, and talent. If you don't have the technology, that's another matter."
2.5 years is just the time it takes to build a production line, but every time a new technology emerges, TSMC has to build at least three factories. CC Wei took 3nm as an example. "It will take about 5 years to build a 3nm plant to meet all customer needs. If you want to move TSMC's 3nm to any country, assuming you have good land, water and electricity, There are no problems with the talent. It will only take 5 years. "
However, the progress of the construction of the US factory has not met TSMC's original expectations. CC Wei said with a smile, "We were in Arizona, I was crying and going through all kinds of training." He said it humorously, and the whole audience burst into laughter, but he pointed out three challenges that outsiders would not imagine.
"First, we thought that the United States is so big, building a house is not a big deal. Wrong, building a house is a big deal. I want to build a production line in Arizona. First, they have never heard of what a production line is. I said, Isn't there an IDM (referring to IDM giant Intel) next door? He said, that was ten years ago, now everyone has left, so they won't build one. "CC Wei said that the first problem is the local infrastructure. The thing is, they didn't know how to build a factory, and in the end half of the construction workers were recruited from Texas.
Second, I never thought that in one place, I would encounter different laws and regulations from the local government. "TSMC is a company that is well taken care of by the government. We are ahead of the curve and have built various production lines. The government doesn't know what to do. We discuss with the Taiwanese government how to set the regulations." However, after arriving in the United States, the US government also don’t know how to make regulations, but the US government told TSMC, “Please pay first, and we will use your money to hire experts to make rules. In the end, every time we have a meeting, city government officials and our experts hired by the company and TSMC, who then spoke out and worked together to formulate the rules, and only after they were formulated did we move forward. In total, we formulated more than 18,000 rules, and it cost 35 million US dollars.
CC Wei said with a smile, "I'm not complaining, I'm just sharing my experience." He then mentioned the problem of chemicals in the United States. The United States cannot produce the level that TSMC needs. If it can be produced, the price will be 5 times higher than what TSMC originally purchased. "We ended up shipping sulfuric acid from Taiwan to the Port of L.A., and then trucking it from the port to Arizona. Even this was cheaper than doing it in the U.S."
But Intel, a giant American semiconductor manufacturer, has a factory next to TSMC. So, how does Intel deal with the problem of chemical materials? CC Wei said, "They saw this as a good deal, so they also started buying from Taiwan. It's hard to believe when you hear this, and you ask them, how did you live in the past? They say, they had a hard life before, but now they have you."
The second problem is related to the labor union. CC Wei said, "The establishment of the labor union was a noble ideal to help workers fight for better benefits, but later, the union became very strange." It is obvious that TSMC has also encountered labor-capital conflicts in the local area.
The third problem is related to the speed of local government administration. "TSMC has made such rapid progress because it can build a production line in two and a half years. However, in these two and a half years, our technology has been improving. Every time the technology is improved, the entire production line design had to be changed, including the water, electricity, and chemical lines under the production line. Every time a change was made, we worked with the manufacturer and did it immediately. But in the United States, it was not possible. Any change had to be stopped and fixed first. Once the drawing is done, we can proceed with the work after the application is approved.”
At this rate, CC Wei bluntly said, "Do you think it is possible for the latest technology to go to the United States? Just applying for everything and then coming in will take at least twice as long as Taiwan." Obviously, for TSMC, the latest technology will only remain in Taiwan and will be difficult to move to other countries.
money.udn.com
Since TSMC officially set up a factory in the United States in 2021, many people in the market have been worried about whether TSMC will bring the latest technology to the United States, making Taiwan no longer have an advantage.
Before answering the market's concerns, CC Wei first talked about, "If you want to repeat the TSMC, how long will it take? Not long, you can build a production line in 2.5 years." However, this 2.5 years is estimated with prerequisites, "there must be enough land, water, electricity, and talent. If you don't have the technology, that's another matter."
2.5 years is just the time it takes to build a production line, but every time a new technology emerges, TSMC has to build at least three factories. CC Wei took 3nm as an example. "It will take about 5 years to build a 3nm plant to meet all customer needs. If you want to move TSMC's 3nm to any country, assuming you have good land, water and electricity, There are no problems with the talent. It will only take 5 years. "
However, the progress of the construction of the US factory has not met TSMC's original expectations. CC Wei said with a smile, "We were in Arizona, I was crying and going through all kinds of training." He said it humorously, and the whole audience burst into laughter, but he pointed out three challenges that outsiders would not imagine.
"First, we thought that the United States is so big, building a house is not a big deal. Wrong, building a house is a big deal. I want to build a production line in Arizona. First, they have never heard of what a production line is. I said, Isn't there an IDM (referring to IDM giant Intel) next door? He said, that was ten years ago, now everyone has left, so they won't build one. "CC Wei said that the first problem is the local infrastructure. The thing is, they didn't know how to build a factory, and in the end half of the construction workers were recruited from Texas.
Second, I never thought that in one place, I would encounter different laws and regulations from the local government. "TSMC is a company that is well taken care of by the government. We are ahead of the curve and have built various production lines. The government doesn't know what to do. We discuss with the Taiwanese government how to set the regulations." However, after arriving in the United States, the US government also don’t know how to make regulations, but the US government told TSMC, “Please pay first, and we will use your money to hire experts to make rules. In the end, every time we have a meeting, city government officials and our experts hired by the company and TSMC, who then spoke out and worked together to formulate the rules, and only after they were formulated did we move forward. In total, we formulated more than 18,000 rules, and it cost 35 million US dollars.
CC Wei said with a smile, "I'm not complaining, I'm just sharing my experience." He then mentioned the problem of chemicals in the United States. The United States cannot produce the level that TSMC needs. If it can be produced, the price will be 5 times higher than what TSMC originally purchased. "We ended up shipping sulfuric acid from Taiwan to the Port of L.A., and then trucking it from the port to Arizona. Even this was cheaper than doing it in the U.S."
But Intel, a giant American semiconductor manufacturer, has a factory next to TSMC. So, how does Intel deal with the problem of chemical materials? CC Wei said, "They saw this as a good deal, so they also started buying from Taiwan. It's hard to believe when you hear this, and you ask them, how did you live in the past? They say, they had a hard life before, but now they have you."
The second problem is related to the labor union. CC Wei said, "The establishment of the labor union was a noble ideal to help workers fight for better benefits, but later, the union became very strange." It is obvious that TSMC has also encountered labor-capital conflicts in the local area.
The third problem is related to the speed of local government administration. "TSMC has made such rapid progress because it can build a production line in two and a half years. However, in these two and a half years, our technology has been improving. Every time the technology is improved, the entire production line design had to be changed, including the water, electricity, and chemical lines under the production line. Every time a change was made, we worked with the manufacturer and did it immediately. But in the United States, it was not possible. Any change had to be stopped and fixed first. Once the drawing is done, we can proceed with the work after the application is approved.”
At this rate, CC Wei bluntly said, "Do you think it is possible for the latest technology to go to the United States? Just applying for everything and then coming in will take at least twice as long as Taiwan." Obviously, for TSMC, the latest technology will only remain in Taiwan and will be difficult to move to other countries.

講起美國廠 魏哲家:我一把鼻涕、一把眼淚 受盡各種訓練 | 產業熱點 | 產業 | 經濟日報
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