Wei Zhejia: The semiconductor industry is not as simple as building factories

TSMC President Wei Zhejia talked about the development of the semiconductor industry and the international supply chain at a forum hosted by the Yushan Technology Association. He said that it is not easy to control the semiconductor industry chain. Buying machines and building factories is the easiest step, but technology is "not that easy."

The Business Times reported that with the changes in international geopolitics, semiconductors have become more important. Wei Zhejia said that every country wants to produce semiconductors, build semiconductor production lines, and control the semiconductor industry chain, but it is not easy to control the industry chain. The machine is the easiest step. After the factory is built, does the technology come? "It's not that easy."

Regarding Japan's investment in the development of semiconductor 2nm technology, Wei Zhejia said that it is quite difficult to make leaps and bounds. "The result of overtaking on a curve is that the insurance company will lose money."

As for TSMC’s establishment of a factory in Japan, Wei Zhejia said that Japan is obviously not a very cheap place. The main reason is to support customers. Japanese customers are suppliers of TSMC’s largest customer. Nano, so to fully support Japanese customers. At present, more than 200 Japanese factory engineers have come to Taiwan for training and will return to Japan in the future. The market believes that Apple is TSMC's largest customer.

In addition, Wei Zhejia also said that geopolitical confrontation is distorting the semiconductor market and eliminating the benefits of globalization. "Geopolitical confrontation has distorted the entire market. In the past, you made a product and sold it all over the world. Now some products are not allowed to be sold. Some countries say you are not allowed to enter, and some countries say that you are not allowed to enter certain products. Only certain local products can be used".