If there’s one thing we’ve learned during the semiconductor shortage, it’s that Taiwan has absolute dominance in the chip production market. If you want to get your hands on it, it’s very likely you’ll do it in Taiwan. I am sending it out. However, changes from the United States could change this dominance and would be worth noting.
a bloomberg (opens in new tab)Report (via tom’s hardware (opens in new tab)) says the combination of changes in US sanctions against China and China’s Covid lockdown could result in big changes, according to Taiwanese economic officials. , we can expect a significant economic downturn due to the impact of America
US imposed restrictions (opens in new tab) Banned China’s supercomputing sector from buying advanced chips made with US technology in Taipei. This means companies like TSMC and UMC will be hit hard by sales that would otherwise come from these Chinese markets.
New changes to China’s anti-Covid lockdown mean that production in China’s fabs will also be significantly cut, so fewer chips will be bought anyway. With demand dropping significantly, Taiwanese semiconductor makers should expect orders to fall significantly.
Cai Yutai, head of statistics at the Directorate General’s Bureau of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, expects Taiwan’s gross domestic product growth rate to drop to 3.06% in 2022 and 2.75% in 2023. But these are only potential short-term problems for Taiwan’s chip market.
With the US CHIPS and Science Act recently passed by Congress, (opens in new tab), in North America there should be an influx of fabs built on that soil. $52 billion in subsidies could bring more manufacturers to the US and further expand their business in Taiwan. Europe has also brought benefits of its own, and Taiwan has announced some tax cuts but has yet to move forward with subsidies.This could hit the industry more devastating than an earthquake (opens in new tab).
Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how this really plays out to see how Taiwan takes a hit from all this. It’s hard to imagine how. (opens in new tab)becoming a chip engineer may not be a bad option.
