TSMC Chose the US. Now It Must Handle China
The semiconductor giant displayed customary diplomacy for Pelosi, but the CHIPS Act and a fab in Arizona confirm where its future lies.
Photograph: Bloomberg
As recently as three years ago, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was trying to sit on the increasingly thorny fence between the US and China. The former is a much bigger buyer of chips, the latter is growing faster, and both are important markets for the world’s most advanced manufacturer of semiconductors.
Any semblance of neutrality disappeared this week, when Chairman Mark Liu and founder Morris Chang met with Nancy Pelosi, alongside Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, during the US House Speaker’s geopolitically charged trip to Taipei. As much as TSMC might want to claim that it was a mere courtesy to see a visiting dignitary, the Communist government across the Taiwan Strait surely won’t see it that way.