Reply to post: Taiwan without TSMC

TSMC and China: Mutually assured destruction now measured in nanometers, not megatons

Zolko Silver badge
Mushroom

Taiwan without TSMC

I think that you didn't think that one through: imagine that China does invade Taiwan, and Taiwan does indeed destroy TSMC fabs. Who would loose more: China or USA ?

For the USA, Taiwan's only asset is TSMC, and most of the US industry is built on it : without TSMC, the worldwide IT industry takes a hit, and that is the US most – may-be only – valuable production. People will use older computer kit, no more shiny iStuff, no more ressource-hog clouds, and finally no more mass surveillance by the NSA (remember Edward Snowden ?)

For China, Taiwan is a break-away territory, with or without TSMC. If they get Taiwan without TSMC, they still have their own semiconductor factories, but not in the 5nm range, only 20nm. Tough, but not Earth-shattering, and the same for the rest of the world also (except Samsung, in Korea).

Which means that the threat by Taiwan to self-destruct is as efficient as for Europe to sanction their supplier of gas and oil : a bad joke.

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