Wei Zhejia, chairman of TSMC, recently confirmed at a press conference that he has sent a team to Texas to evaluate the establishment of a wafer factory and has discussed cooperation with Terafab promoted by Musk, but has not yet finalized. Wei Zhejia emphasized that no matter what cooperation model is adopted, the wafer fab must be operated by TSMC. This sentence reveals the bottom line of TSMC's expansion of global layout, and also makes Taiwan face a deeper question: As wafer factories gradually move overseas, can Taiwan continue to control the core decision-making power of semiconductor manufacturing?
The Texas layout has its commercial rationale. Large American technology companies are competing to expand AI computing power, and their demand for advanced chips far exceeds existing production capacity. If TSMC can increase its production base outside of Arizona, it will not only be able to get closer to customers and reduce geographical risks in the supply chain, but also consolidate its leading position in global foundry. Cooperation with Terafab will allow TSMC to tap into the emerging needs of Tesla, space technology and AI computing. However, setting up factories overseas involves huge capital expenditures and must face constraints such as U.S. engineering talent, supply chain density, electricity and factory construction costs. When customer demand grows rapidly, expansion of production is a business opportunity; if demand or technical routes change, heavy fixed assets may also become a burden.
What is also worrying is whether Taiwan's semiconductor advantage can be sustained. In the past, when talking about the sacred mountain that protects the country, most of the focus was on advanced manufacturing processes, wafer production capacity, and talent retention in Taiwan. However, AI is changing the way wafer manufacturing competes. TSMC has introduced AI into smart dispatch, process control, equipment management and defect detection, and has cooperated with Huida to accelerate lithography calculations, process simulation and yield improvement. When manufacturing advantages gradually shift from the equipment and engineering capabilities of a single wafer factory to the smart manufacturing capabilities of integrating data, models and decision-making across factories, it just shows the strategic significance of TSMC's AI brain. TSMC’s decades of accumulated process parameters, equipment characteristics, yield data, engineer experience and advanced packaging knowledge are gradually being transformed into a manufacturing knowledge system that can be used for AI analysis, learning and decision-making support. In the future, if design, manufacturing, packaging and global operations can be integrated and overseas wafer fabs can share the professional capabilities of Taiwan's R&D and manufacturing platforms, Taiwan will have the opportunity to become a global decision-making center for smart semiconductor manufacturing.
But the problem is that overseas wafer fabs will not stay in the role of simply executing production instructions forever. As Texas or Arizona gradually establishes a network of R&D, engineering, equipment and suppliers, the local area will also accumulate the ability to independently solve process problems. If key process data, yield models, AI algorithms, and technical decision-making talents continue to migrate overseas, Taiwan may still maintain a large number of wafer fabs, but gradually lose its ability to dominate the global manufacturing system. Wei Zhejia insists that operating autonomy is important, but operating rights do not equal control over manufacturing wisdom, nor can it guarantee that technology and knowledge will not leak out.
TSMC announced that it will build 13 wafer manufacturing and advanced packaging plants in Taiwan in the next few years and expand its 3-nanometer production capacity in Tainan, showing that Taiwan remains an important production base. The government should take this opportunity to help establish Taiwan-centered semiconductor AI research and development, model training and cross-factory governance systems, and continue to take root in Taiwan with core process knowledge, yield learning, advanced packaging technology and key decision-making capabilities. Overseas factories obtain necessary technical support based on operational needs, taking into account on-site independent response, data security and customer rights.
TSMC's move to Texas is good news for the expansion of global competitiveness, but it also tests Taiwan's ability to maintain its industrial dominance. Taiwan must continue to accumulate the most important process innovation, AI manufacturing knowledge and technology decisions in Taiwan. What will determine the value of the national guardian mountain in the future may not be just where the wafer fab is located, but who controls the AI manufacturing brain that global wafer fabs rely on.
