In the future, Taiwanese companies will need approval from the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs for major investments abroad. A revision of the law on industrial innovation is primarily aimed at the chip contract manufacturer TSMC. Anzeige The revision of the law itself has so far been kept general.
Of particular importance is the new Article 22, which allows authorities to impose conditions on foreign investment. The Ministry of Economic Affairs cites national security and economic development, among other reasons, as justification. “N minus 1” rule Prime Minister Toh Jung-tai confirmed on the third reading of the law that it is essentially about TSMC.
The government wants to implement a so-called “N minus 1” rule. The Taiwanese media, United Daily News (UDN) and Commercial Times (CTEE) are among those reporting on this. TSMC is officially only allowed to produce chips with its state-of-the-art production technology in Taiwan.
In foreign semiconductor plants, only the previous production generation is permitted. The exact implementation of the law is to be worked out in the coming months. Reality, even without a law In reality, however, there is hardly any impact because TSMC already only produces with its latest manufacturing technology in Taiwan.
This is currently the 3-nanometer process N3E; the successor N2 will follow by the end of the year. In the USA, however, TSMC manufactures chips using the optimized 5 nm process N4 or N4P. AMD and Nvidia use the US plants for their processors and AI accelerators, respectively.
Apple is said to have processors for older iPhones produced there. Anzeige TSMC develops new production processes in its Taiwanese research centers. After completion, the risk and finally series production in domestic semiconductor plants begins.
Only when everything is running smoothly there will it be introduced in the new US semiconductor plants years later. This approach is intended to minimize costs. For the German joint venture European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC), the legislation is irrelevant anyway because chips are produced there using much older manufacturing technology.
At the start, these are 28 to 12 nm, because demand is high from car manufacturers. TSMC also manufactures with older technology at its other sites in China and Japan. According to speculation, the Taiwanese government is formally introducing the new investment rules to curb opinion mongering that the US could steal TSMC's manufacturing technology.
Read also Taiwanese government avoids trouble with Trump Previously, Taiwanese politicians tried to avoid a trade conflict with the US by making concessions. In addition, TSMC increased its investments in US semiconductor plants to 165 billion US dollars. Despite this, US President Donald Trump is still talking about possible tariffs on Taiwanese chips.
(mma)
