Taiwanese tech company TSMC announced Thursday that it had begun mass manufacturing of its 3-nanometer chips, which are among the most advanced to hit the market. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has the world’s largest silicon wafer plants and manufactures high-performance chips used in everything from cellphones to automobiles to missiles. It also serves as Apple’s primary chip supplier.
Its 3nm-process chips are projected to have better computing capability while consuming less power, hence improving battery performance.
“Our 3nm technology will be used massively in future state-of-the-art technological products, including super computers, cloud servers, high speed internet and many many mobile devices,” chairman Mark Liu said at a ceremony announcing mass production at a plant in the southwestern city of Tainan.
He went on to say that the company intends to establish even smaller 2nm factories in Taiwan’s cities of Hsinchu and Taichung. In June, TSMC’s South Korean rival Samsung launched mass manufacturing of its 3nm processors. Taiwan is a major player in the worldwide chip industry.
TSMC alone accounts for over half of the world’s manufacture of semiconductors smaller than 10nm.
The concentration of such a vital industry in one location has sparked geopolitical anxiety, particularly as China increasingly threatens Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that the Chinese Communist Party claims and has pledged to conquer one day.
The global chip scarcity that occurred during the coronavirus outbreak heightened those fears. Western governments have urged TSMC to establish more foundries overseas, which it has agreed to do.
The business is building a massive $40 billion plant in Arizona to eventually create its own 4nm and 3nm chips, as part of the United States’ efforts to secure a consistent supply of semiconductors on its territory.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden attended a ceremony to announce a massive expansion of the Arizona facility, which is one of the largest foreign investments in the United States. TSMC has also agreed to establish foundries in Japan and is looking into locations in Germany.
At the same time, Taiwan’s IT companies and government are determined to keep the majority of cutting-edge production in the country, partly because the industry provides some protection to the island.
Any invasion or blockade of Taiwan by China would be disastrous for the world economy because so many critical semiconductors are manufactured there – a buffer known as Taiwan’s “Silicon Shield” by analysts.
President Tsai Ing-wen has downplayed fears that Taiwan risks losing that shield – and employment – by building foundries abroad, instead portraying the investments as proof of the island’s technological superiority.
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