The chairman of the world's largest chip foundry has described US and Europe plans to expand local semiconductor manufacturing capacity for strategic independence as "economically unrealistic".
www.eenewseurope.com, Apr. 05, 2021 –
Mark Liu, chairman of Taiwanese foundry TSMC, was speaking at a Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) in Hsinchu, Taiwan in his role as chairman of the TSIA. A key point Liu made was that if entire semiconductor supply chains were replicated in the US and in Europe it would lead to a large amount of "non-profitable capacity."
Liu was also reported saying that some part of the current chip supply shortage is the result of double-booking of orders prompted by uncertainty in 2020. That uncertainty in turn came from the Covid-19 pandemic and rushed orders as smartphone makers tried to fill a gap left by the blacklisted Huawei Technologies.