台積電為何將繼續保持在台灣根基，即使全球擴張
在一次採訪中，晶圓代工龍頭台積電董事長劉德音解釋了為什麼該公司頂尖的科技會留在台灣，儘管面臨中國的威脅以及美國的擔憂。台灣積體電路製造公司(TSMC)在全球最地緣政治不穩定的地區之一的台灣進行業務。
這使得華盛頓的人們非常緊張。台積電主宰著半導體產業，美國無法脫離的一家公司，就位於距離中國海岸80英里的台灣。
美國政府已經撥款數百億美元來加強美國自己的半導體行業，並幫助資助台積電在美國的新興業務，遠離中國，中國從未放棄使用武力吞併台灣。
但是台積電自己在台灣投資了數十億美元，歷時近四十年在台灣建立了深厚的根基。在那裡，它聘用了大批的工程師、研發科學家、技術人員和生產工人，從事精密複雜的晶片製造工作，將電子元件刻上矽晶片的表面，其大小比一個細胞還要小。
劉德音，台積電董事長表示，在其他地方很難複製台灣台積電所建立的東西。開發和生產公司最尖端的芯片需要巨大的努力，一代技術可能需要多達3000名研究科學家。
他說：“我們無法將它放在其他地方。”
台積電已經展開全球擴張計劃，包括在美國以及在日本各建設一個工廠，同時可能在德國建設一個工廠。這是該公司應對美國官員呼籲減少對台灣製造的晶片依賴的戰略的一部分。
這使得現年68歲的劉德音(他擁有電子工程和計算機科學博士學位)成為一位外交官和科學家以及高管。30年前，在英特爾和貝爾實驗室任職後，他加入了台積電，並逐步晉升至今日擔任這家價值5000億美元的公司的董事長，公司的首席執行官和副董事長魏哲家。
在六月底，當他在台灣北部城市新竹的台積電辦公室接受《紐約時報》訪問時，他剛從一次前往美國的旅行中回來，他表示他大約每三個月訪問一次美國。
TSMC成立全球半導體領域競賽
台積電：我們與台灣晶片製造商的創辦人張忠謀和董事長劉德音談論了該公司的過去和未來，隨著公司擴大業務，發現自己處於科技冷戰的中心。
矽封鎖：拜登政府認為通過切斷中國的先進計算機晶片，可以保持美國的技術主導地位。這個計劃可能會產生反效果？
晶片法案：為限制聯邦支出而達成的交易，以暫停債務上限，引發了人們對於這項提高美國半導體行業的雙方協議是否會獲得所有承諾資金的擔憂。
美國的工人短缺：在獲得數十億美元的聯邦資金支持下，美國的半導體公司計劃創造數千個就業機會。但可能沒有足夠的人來填補這些職位。
他說：“我們與國會、商務部、白宮有著相當良好的關係。我想他們了解我們。”
這話有點過於保守。最初試圖招攬台積電並將其生產設施引進美國的努力，導致了《晶片與科學法》的創建，這是一個擴大美國半導體行業的計劃。
台積電在這個行業中的領先地位是如此完全，以至於沒有明顯的第二選擇可以做到它所做的一切。任何涉及台灣的衝突——台灣是其製造業的絕大部分所在地——都將阻止台積電微晶片的流動，使技術產業陷入深度冷凍狀態，進而影響全球經濟。
符合一家公司為保護其艱苦取得的技術領先地位而著迷的特點，台積電的辦公室更像是一個保密的政府研究機構，而不是矽谷的校園。
在員工刷卡的旋轉閘旁邊，有一個標誌，指出自2010年以來有五人因違反公司嚴格的內部安全規則而被解雇。其中一個違規行為包括在回復郵件時未正確更改主題行。外部電話被禁止。儘管政策最近已放寬，但員工們講述了在停車場吃午飯的故事，以便能使用自己的手機。
大小相當於飛機庫的無窗大樓每天24小時運作，生產微晶片，即智能手機、飛機、超級計算機和幾乎所有其他電子設備內部的小型晶片。
美國及其在與中國的貿易戰中的盟友的政治領袖一直敦促台積電在台灣以外的地方建立生產設施。中國也竭力與台積電競爭，使用從黑客攻擊和知識產權盜竊到數千億美元的投資等一切手段。
隨著美國試圖阻礙中國在半導體技術上的進展，台積電陷入了困境。在2020年，台積電中止了對中國科技巨頭華為的訂單，當時華為是台積電的第二大客戶。劉德音表示，由於台積電依賴於美國的技術，他們別無選擇。
他說：“這是可以理解的，但是不管是否支持，我們無話可說。”
劉德音否定了「矽盾」的觀念：即台灣的晶片製造實力阻止中國的軍事行動，並獲得美國的支持。兩者都需要台灣的晶片。
他說：“中國不會因為半導體而入侵台灣。中國也不會因為半導體而不入侵台灣，”他說。“這真的取決於美國和中國：他們如何維持雙方都希望的現狀？”
台積電在亞利桑那州投資了400億美元，建設了兩個生產比其最先進的晶片落後一到兩代的晶片的工廠。預計該公司將在本月提交《晶片法案》的補貼申請。
亞利桑那州的廠房進展緩慢，公司已經派遣數百名台灣技術人員加快進程。上個月，公司將預計的開始生產日期推遲了一年，到2025年，並面臨著高昂的成本和管理上的挑戰。台積電和美國工人之間的文化差異也帶來了內部緊張局勢。
對於美國公司是否愿意支付可能需要的亞利桑那州芯片的溢價，存在疑慮，因為台積電的建設成本可能至少是在台灣的四倍。劉德音表示，他已經告訴美國政府，美國公司需要提供額外的激勵，超出《晶片法案》520億美元的補貼，來購買美國製造的芯片。
他說：“否則，這將是有限的，”他說。“它很快就會受到限制。所以這是在討論中。但我認為我們還沒有解決方案。” 負責處理《晶片法案》激勵措施的商務部對於具體公司的評論不予置評。
劉德音表示，2018年，川普政府的商務部敦促公司在美國投資。一些台積電的客戶在行業會議上私下接近劉德音，表達了需要其在美國建立生產設施的需求。劉德音感覺到情勢正在發生變化。
他說：“我想也許是時候讓台積電走向全球，因為我知道我們的技術在今天領先，但未來呢？”
不久之後，川普政府的國務院出於國家安全的理由開始招攬台積電，強調先進晶片在像F-35戰機之類的軍事裝備中的作用。負責經濟增長、能源和環境事務的副國務卿基思·克拉奇安排了劉德音、國務卿邁克·蓬佩奧和商務部長威爾伯·羅斯之間的電話通話。
劉德音回憶說，龐培歐表示，台積電需要幫助「催化」美國的半導體行業。
劉德音說：“對我來說，這也很重要，因為我們的65%客戶在美國。”他說。“他們有不同的需求，而我們也有機會。”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/technology/tsmc-mark-liu.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Technology
Why TSMC Will Keep Its Roots in Taiwan, Even as It Goes Global
In an interview, the chip maker’s chairman, Mark Liu, explained why TSMC’s top tech would stay in Taiwan, despite growing threats from China and worries from the United States.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which is manufacturing the world’s most advanced microchips, conducts business on the island of Taiwan, dead center in one of the most geopolitically volatile places on the planet.
That makes people in Washington very nervous. TSMC dominates the semiconductor industry; it’s a company that the United States can’t do without, 80 miles off the coast of China.
The U.S. government has appropriated tens of billions of dollars to strengthen America’s own semiconductor sector and help fund TSMC’s nascent operations in the United States, far from China, which has never renounced the use of force to absorb Taiwan.
But TSMC has invested billions of its own over nearly four decades growing deep roots in Taiwan. There, it employs a small army of engineers, research and development scientists, technicians and production workers in the exquisitely complex task of producing chips, etching electronic pathways smaller than a cell on plates of silicon.
It would be exceedingly difficult to replicate what TSMC has built in Taiwan, said Mark Liu, chairman of TSMC. Developing and producing the company’s most cutting-edge chips at a rapid pace requires a huge effort, he said, as many as 3,000 research scientists for one generation of the technology.
“We cannot put it anyplace else,” he said.
TSMC has embarked on a global expansion, with two factories under construction in the United States and one in Japan, as well as a possible facility in Germany. It’s part of the company’s strategy to address the calls by U.S. officials to reduce America’s reliance on chips made in Taiwan.
That makes the 68-year-old Mr. Liu, who holds a doctoral degree in electronic engineering and computer science, as much a diplomat as a scientist and an executive. He joined TSMC 30 years ago after stints at Intel and Bell Labs, rose through the ranks and today runs the $500 billion company with its chief executive and vice chairman, C.C. Wei.
In late June, when he spoke to The New York Times at TSMC’s offices in the northern Taiwan city of Hsinchu, he had just returned from a trip to the United States, which he said he visits roughly every three months.
The Global Race for Computer Chips
TSMC: We spoke to the Taiwanese chip maker’s founder, Morris Chang, and its chairman, Mark Liu, about the company’s past and future as it expands its reach and finds itself at the center of a tech Cold War.
A Silicon Blockade: The Biden administration thinks it can preserve America’s technological primacy by cutting China off from advanced computer chips. Could the plan backfire?
CHIPS Act: A deal to limit federal spending in exchange for suspending the debt ceiling has raised concerns about whether the bipartisan law to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry will receive all of its promised funding.
Worker Shortage in U.S.: Strengthened by billions of federal dollars, America’s semiconductor companies plan to create thousands of jobs. But there might not be enough people to fill them.
“We have a pretty good relationship across Congress, the Commerce Department, the White House. I think they know us,” he said.
It’s a bit of an understatement. Initial efforts to court TSMC and bring its production facilities to the United States led to the creation of the CHIPS and Science Act, a program to expand the U.S. semiconductor industry. So complete is TSMC’s lead in the industry that there is no obvious second option for all it does. Any clash over Taiwan — where the vast majority of its manufacturing happens — would stop the flow of the TSMC microchips, putting a deep freeze on the technology industry and, in turn, the global economy.
As befits a company obsessed with protecting its hard-won technological lead, TSMC’s offices feel more like a secret government research facility than a Silicon Valley campus.
Next to turnstiles where workers swipe their badges, a sign notes that five people have been fired since 2010 for breaking the company’s strict internal security rules. One offense included improperly changing the subject line of an email in a reply. Outside phones are banned. Although policies have recently loosened up, employees tell stories of eating lunch in the parking lot so they can access their personal phones.
Windowless buildings the size of aircraft hangars operate 24 hours a day to produce microchips, the tiny brains inside smartphones, airplanes, supercomputers and just about anything else electronic.
Political leaders in the United States and its allies in trade battles with China have pushed TSMC to build production facilities outside Taiwan. And China has tried hard to compete with TSMC, using everything from hacks and intellectual property theft to hundreds of billions of dollars in investment.
As the United States has sought to hinder China’s advances in semiconductor technology, TSMC has been caught in the middle. In 2020, TSMC cut off orders to the Chinese tech powerhouse Huawei, which was TSMC’s second-largest customer at the time. Mr. Liu said TSMC, because it is reliant on American technology, had no choice.
“It’s understandable, but support or not, we have no say,” he said.
Mr. Liu rejected the idea of the “silicon shield”: that Taiwan’s chip-making prowess deters military action by China and brings support from the United States. Both need Taiwan’s chips.
“China will not invade Taiwan because of semiconductors. China will not not invade Taiwan because of semiconductors,” he said. “It is really up to the U.S. and China: How do they maintain the status quo, which both sides want?”
TSMC has made a $40 billion investment in Arizona to build two factories to produce chips that are one or two generations behind its most advanced ones. The company is expected to submit its application for CHIPS Act subsidies this month, Mr. Liu said.
The Arizona plants have been slow going, and the company has deployed hundreds of Taiwanese technicians to expedite the process. Last month it pushed back the expected start date by a year to 2025, and it has faced high costs and managerial challenges. Internal tensions over cultural differences have surfaced between TSMC and American workers.
And doubts loom over whether American companies will be willing to pay the likely premium required for chips made in Arizona, where TSMC’s construction costs alone could be at least four times higher than they are in Taiwan. Mr. Liu said he had told the U.S. government that it needed to offer American companies incentives, beyond the $52 billion in subsidies in the CHIPS Act, to buy American-made chips.
“Otherwise, it will be limited,” he said. “It will come to limits pretty quickly. So that is on the table. But I don’t think we have a solution yet.” The Commerce Department, in charge of handling CHIPS Act incentives, declined to comment on specific companies.
In 2018, Mr. Liu said, the Commerce Department under President Donald J. Trump urged the company to invest in the United States. And several TSMC clients privately approached Mr. Liu at an industry conference and expressed the need for it to establish a U.S. manufacturing presence. Mr. Liu sensed the landscape was shifting.
“I thought maybe it’s time for TSMC to go a little bit global, because I know our technology is leading today, but what about in the future?” he said.
Before long, the Trump administration’s State Department, citing national security grounds, started courting TSMC, emphasizing the role of advanced chips in military gear like F-35 fighter jets. Keith Krach, under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, arranged a phone call between Mr. Liu, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Mr. Liu recalled that Mr. Krach said TSMC was needed to help “catalyze” the American semiconductor industry.
“That for me is also important because the U.S. is where 65 percent of our customers reside,” Mr. Liu said. “They have different needs, and we also have opportunities.”
沒有留言:
張貼留言