Why is Taiwan Semiconductor difficult to replace? Hou Yongqing: Engineers have "collaboration DNA"

Hou Yongqing, senior deputy general manager and deputy co-chief operating officer of TSMC, attended the Federation of Industry and Commerce Industry Festival celebration meeting today (11th).

Hou Yongqing, senior vice president and deputy co-chief operating officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (2330), the leader in wafer foundry, pointed out that in addition to the high quality of talent in Taiwan's semiconductor industry, more importantly, engineers have "collaboration DNA" that is willing to cooperate with different companies. As the complexity of the semiconductor industry continues to increase, no one company can complete all aspects independently. The ability to collaborate across companies will be an important advantage of Taiwan's semiconductor industry.

Hou Yongqing attended the Federation of Industry and Commerce Industry Festival celebration meeting today to share the opportunities and challenges facing Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Hou Yongqing said that when the outside world talks about Taiwan's talent advantages, they usually think that Taiwanese people are smart, hard-working, and hard-working. However, he believes that Taiwanese talents have another easily overlooked trait, which is their willingness to cooperate with others. Now the technology and ecosystem of the semiconductor industry have become so complex that no one company can do it from beginning to end. It must rely on different enterprises, suppliers, and partners to complete the task. Therefore, the ability to cooperate has become an indispensable condition for industrial development.

Hou Yongqing further pointed out that cooperation sounds simple, but not engineers in every country or region have such thinking. He believes that some neighboring countries are very competitive, but in terms of cooperation, the talents trained in Taiwan have considerable advantages, and this cooperative DNA is an important but easily overlooked invisible competitiveness of Taiwan's semiconductor industry.

Hou Yongqing also emphasized that Taiwan's semiconductor industry does not rely on a single company to develop alone. Instead, over the past 30 years, many companies have continued to work in their respective professional fields and gradually established a complete industrial ecosystem. Taking advanced manufacturing processes as an example, a 2 or 3 nanometer wafer fab requires the use of approximately 2,000 to 3,000 chemicals, including equipment, materials and various supply chain resources. It must rely on a complete industrial cluster to support it.

Hou Yongqing believes that in order for Taiwan's semiconductor industry to continue to maintain its leading position in the world in the future, it must not only continuously improve its technology, but also continue to deepen cooperation in the industry chain. Not only does Taiwanese companies cooperate with each other, but also establish cooperative relationships with global companies, so that international manufacturers are willing to continue to develop hand in hand with Taiwan's semiconductor industry.