I’m sure TSMC would become untenable if either the US stopped buying or selling to them, though I tend to disagree and think that not licensing US tech would kill them faster. I’m pretty sure that many of that tech is not available from anywhere else and would just cause a full stop of their business, at least for some time.
Comment on TSMC suspended shipments to China firm after chip found on Huawei processor, sources say
sour@feddit.org 3 weeks agoYes, but it would be an even bigger blow to TSMC if all US companies would stop buying from them. I’m pretty sure nvidia, AMD and Apple make a very sizable part of their customer base.
realitista@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
HighlyRegardedArtist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not really. China would just buy it all if given the chance and the US companies would be fucked, since TSMC is practically a monopoly within its field at the moment.
sour@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
It’s not as easy, as TSMC needs ASML hardware, which wouldn’t sell it to TSMC anymore because they also want to sell to US companies.
HighlyRegardedArtist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I didn’t say it would be easy, but anything TSMC currently produces would likely find a new buyer even with no US customers, so in the short run the loser would not be TSMC. In the long run, it’s pointless to speculate, since US would probably try to level Taiwan down rather than let China have the semiconductor sector to itself… Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, though.
jaxxed@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Do you think China could soak enough capacity to get TSMC to turn away from all of its major customers? Isn’t most of their industrial design focused on consumer products with automaton, not high end chips? Are there many high end Chinese chip designs?