On December 31, it will be a very important day for semiconductor manufacturers that have plants in China. From that date they will not be able Its facilities in this Asian country. And they cannot do it because The US does not want chips manufacturing equipment that resort to American technologies and innovations They arrive in China. Not even integrated circuit factories that do not belong to Chinese companies.
In 2022 the US Department of Commerce granted a temporary exemption to several manufacturers of foreign semicondators who have plants in China so that they could equip their facilities with the machines they needed. But this permissive period is about to expire. From now on any chips manufacturer who has plants in China will have to request a license from the US Commerce Department to be able to install in its factories machines with US components or technologies.
Intel has sold Your Dalian plant (China), so this measure no longer affects it. However, there are three foreign companies of enormous relevance in the semiconductor industry that will be affected by this measure of the US government: South Korean Samsung and Sk Hynixand the TSMC Taiwanese. The latter has a chips factory in Nankín, in the province of Jiangsu (China), in which as of December 31 it will not be able to install advanced lithography equipment.
The US and TSMC strip and loosen
The semiconductor production plant that TSMC has in Nankín is important for this company, but it is not a toe. In fact, it manufactures mostly chips in its 16 and 28 nm nodes. This installation currently represents only 3% of TSMC’s total production capacity, but this does not mean that it is not relevant within the manufacturing infrastructure of this Taiwanese company. In fact, in 2021 announced an investment plan of 2,870 million dollars that in 2023 allowed expanding the manufacturing capacity of the plant to about 40,000 wafers per month.
These presumably “restrictions” will condemn “in the short and medium term to this factory to the production only of mature chips
During the last weeks, the TSMC Directive dome has met with the US Department of Commerce in an attempt to protect the interests of its Nankín plant, But it has not been successful. These presumably “restrictions” will condemn “in the short and medium term to this factory to Production only with ripe chipsalready long term will probably lose its relevance in the Integrated Circuite Production Infrastructure of TSMC.
Whatever this is only One more episode in the awkward relationship that support the US and TSMC government for years. For this chips manufacturer the country led by Donald Trump is very important because a good part of his best clients is American. Nvidia, Apple, AMD, Broadcom or Qualcomm, among other companies, get the chips they design in TSMC’s lithographic nodes. However, this currency has a second face.
And it is currently the USA cannot do without TSMC. Intel is American, and It has advanced lithography nodesbut the competitiveness of his Taiwanese rival is difficult to match. TSMC has cemented its leadership on the tuning of a range of Very advanced high integration technologiesand, at the same time, On a colossal production capacity which is only possible reaching a very high wafer performance. The US government knows very well the strength of this company. And also how important it is for US companies that I have mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Image | TSMC
More information | SCMP
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