<story><title>TSMC to build second Japan chip factory</title><url>https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tsmc-build-second-japan-chip-105111276.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gipp</author><text>So, maybe someone here can explain this to me. I anyways hear about how the entire semiconductor industry is completely dependent on TSMC, and nothing can operate without them, thus their geopolitical importance.&lt;p&gt;But then what are Intel, Arm, etc in this picture? I don&amp;#x27;t understand semiconductor manufacturing in enough detail -- I assume TSMC occupies a different part of the supply chain? But chip manufacturing seems like a pretty integrated process top to bottom; what&amp;#x27;s the division between them? In concrete terms, what is it that TSMC is doing that nobody else is?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>CitizenKane</author><text>Currently TSMC has the only leading edge chip fabrications plants (fabs) on the planet and they&amp;#x27;re all located in Taiwan. They account for all new chips for all new Apple products, all new AMD products, most new Nvidia products, etc. Most companies design the the chips, but then outsource the manufacturing of them to TSMC as building a fab has astronomical upfront costs.&lt;p&gt;TSMC has acquired a lead in this area through a number of different methods. One of the main things is that they focus deeply on manufacturing. Another is that they work 24 hours a day in R&amp;amp;D, running 3 shifts so they basically have the lights on all the time. And as mentioned above, the upfront costs are incredibly high with a fab costing on the order of 20+ billion dollars to construct.&lt;p&gt;Intel is attempting to catch up, but it will likely be another 3 to 5 years before they are able to do so. Honestly just having R&amp;amp;D up and going all the time is probably a huge advantage for TSMC and probably a big reason behind their success. Regardless, suffice to say basically all cutting edge product shipments would cease in a matter of months if TSMC fabs were destroyed.</text></comment>
<story><title>TSMC to build second Japan chip factory</title><url>https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tsmc-build-second-japan-chip-105111276.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gipp</author><text>So, maybe someone here can explain this to me. I anyways hear about how the entire semiconductor industry is completely dependent on TSMC, and nothing can operate without them, thus their geopolitical importance.&lt;p&gt;But then what are Intel, Arm, etc in this picture? I don&amp;#x27;t understand semiconductor manufacturing in enough detail -- I assume TSMC occupies a different part of the supply chain? But chip manufacturing seems like a pretty integrated process top to bottom; what&amp;#x27;s the division between them? In concrete terms, what is it that TSMC is doing that nobody else is?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>YetAnotherNick</author><text>&amp;gt; I anyways hear about how the entire semiconductor industry is completely dependent on TSMC&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think it&amp;#x27;s as strong dependance as many commenters assume here. Samsung is 2 years behind TSMC and intel 3-4 years behind in terms of fab capability. While losing 2 years of progress is not great, it&amp;#x27;s definitely nothing like world can&amp;#x27;t function without TSMC.&lt;p&gt;Obviously they need few years to ramp up but I assume it&amp;#x27;s not like Taiwan geopolitics situation would change in a day.</text></comment>