[ad_1]
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Taiwan on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring thousands more, causing landslides and infrastructure damage across the island.
Given that this earthquake was Taiwan’s worst in a quarter of a century, it’s no wonder there was concern from around the world. But no one remembers mentioning the last earthquake, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 1999. The earthquake killed more than 2,000 people and cracked the sidewalk outside his uncle’s 7-Eleven store in Taichung. At that time, Taiwan was so unknown that when I told people my family was from Taiwan, most people just assumed I was mispronouncing Thai.
What’s different now? According to Chip Wars: The Battle for the World’s Most Important Technology, this has a lot to do with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which produces more than a third of the world’s computing power each year. Masu.
read more: The biggest earthquake in 25 years shakes Taiwan, killing 9 people and stranding workers
TSMC is the most advanced and efficient producer of computer chips, perhaps the world’s most valuable resource. Every product, service, and commodity that uses computers or the Internet relies on chip production, including militaries around the world. Even a slight disruption to the operations of Taiwanese companies could cause economic and geopolitical shocks around the world.
The world is now waiting with bated breath to see if Taiwan will trend on social media. Politicians from the right and left have planned official visits to Taiwan to show support for democracy, most recently in February when a Congressional delegation led by Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) visited. Journalists around the world paid close attention to Taiwan’s presidential election, claiming it was an event that could reshape world politics.
National security analysts are creating scenarios for a possible war between the United States and China over Taiwan, counting ships, missiles and bombs on both sides. And as the US presidential election season heats up, it will be important for all of us to learn about Taiwan.
I have no doubt that the world’s concern for Taiwan’s democracy and people is genuine. But this is at least consistent with concerns about Taiwan’s chip foundries, where even the slightest interruption in operations could cause serious disruption to global supply chains.
Thankfully, Reuters reported on Thursday that the chipmaker sustained little major damage in the quake. After an earthquake struck off the coast of Taiwan’s Hualien County on Wednesday morning, TSMC temporarily evacuated some employees from its Hsinchu factory, more than 160 miles from the epicenter. They returned to work a few hours later. But even that brief disruption will reduce the company’s revenue by up to $60 million, and companies that rely on TSMC’s chips will suffer further losses in the future, according to an investor report released by Barclays on Wednesday. It is said that there is a possibility.
TMSC’s main chip foundry is located just over a mile from my late grandmother’s home in Hsinchu. The company is notoriously media-shy, but it does offer an in-house museum for the curious. When I visited relatives in February, I visited to see what I could learn.
As it turns out, there aren’t that many. The museum consists of his four rooms equipped with various interactive touch screens and audio presentations, mainly focused on explaining the technology and history of semiconductor chips. It felt like I was reading a high-tech science textbook.
read more: 10 people killed in major earthquake; Taiwanese rescue teams search for missing and stranded people
The museum was located within a simple business campus, without the exaggeration and over-branding that is typical of American high-tech campuses. National security analysts call TSMC the most important company in the world, but it looks a lot like an office park in Encino.
That humility serves a strategic purpose, said Raymond Kuo, who analyzes U.S.-China security issues with a focus on Taiwan at the Rand Corporation.
Kuo said TSMC has grown to a dominant position in semiconductor manufacturing by staying out of the spotlight. Because the company doesn’t design its own chips, it doesn’t compete with customers like Intel, Apple, Sony, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard.
And in Taiwan, highly qualified engineers and scientists accept Taiwan’s relatively low salaries because they consider work at TSMC a noble calling, which helps keep labor costs low and It helps keep it running all the time. The company’s role in protecting Taiwan’s security is widely known, with President Tsai Ing-wen calling it Taiwan’s “silicon shield.”
“What sets TSMC apart from its competitors is its organization, not its technology. If a machine breaks down at 5 a.m., we have three shifts of people with master’s degrees to keep it running,” Kuo said. ” he said.
Kuo said an invading country could not simply seize oil rigs, mines and other chip manufacturing as spoils. In war, machines that themselves cost hundreds of millions of dollars risk being irreparably damaged. They require decades of expertise to operate effectively. Manufacturing the chips requires huge investments and coordination of government technological resources, similar to the depiction of the race to build the atomic bomb in the movie “Oppenheimer.”
Governments around the world have raced for the past three decades to capture an exploding market for computing power and to prevent political opponents from acquiring advanced chips used in the war effort. For countries participating in this competition, TSMC, and by extension Taiwan, are the winners.
In 2022, the Biden administration will restrict exports of U.S. semiconductor technology to China and ban U.S. residents, nationals, and green card holders from working for Chinese semiconductor companies. The move poses an existential threat to China’s semiconductor sector, which relies on TSMC’s U.S.-designed chips.
But efforts to strangle China’s chip makers are actually increasing Taiwan’s value to China’s leaders, especially as it faces an unprecedented economic downturn.
Wednesday’s earthquake showed that Taiwan can prepare for disasters. After 1999, planners created strict retrofit requirements and blanketed the island with a dense network of warning systems. The quake brought traffic to a standstill across Taiwan, but the death toll and damage were far lower than 25 years ago.
TSMC’s facilities restored most of their production capacity by the next day, and shares rose 3% Thursday morning after the company told investors it could still meet its revenue projections for this year.
But no chips or computerized warning systems are sophisticated enough to predict Taiwan’s biggest threat: the deepening political and economic conflict between the United States and China that threatens to engulf the entire world.
Not yet, anyway.
Sign up for Essential California to get news, features and recommendations from the LA Times and more delivered to your inbox six days a week.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
[ad_2]
Source link
