It's probably the opposite. I very much doubt that the factory would continue to operate if the US refused to defend Taiwan. The factory gives Taiwan a huge amount of leverage.

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seanmcdirmid 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

The supply chains for chip production terminate in Asia but there aren’t many inputs that originate there (which is by design). The real value to be lost are the Taiwanese engineers themselves.

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vasco 4 days ago | parent [-]

How can you design where natural resources exist?

	▲	bloppe 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		He's probably talking about ASML

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daneel_w 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Of course it would continue to operate. The Chinese division of Arm went rogue and basically captured the entire operation from within. USA has both the engineering expertise and the incentive to do the same with an entire chip fab, if push came to shove.

https://semianalysis.com/2021/08/27/the-semiconductor-heist-...

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zarzavat 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

The difference is that ARM is not existentially important to UK national security, whereas TSMC is existentially important to Taiwan's national security.

A TSMC fab in the US is essentially like a military base, if the US decides to take it by force the Taiwanese government can make sure there's nothing left worth taking. All of the Taiwanese employees will be loyal to Taiwan, it's their family members' lives on the line.

The only way that fab continues to operate in the event of war is if the US backs Taiwan. If Taiwan burns then that fab will go with it.

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Mountain_Skies 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

For how much longer will the United States have that expertise? Both major political parties seem intent on becoming completely reliant on importing labor, both blue collar and white collar, while giving domestic labor the finger. Boomers are already retiring by the millions and Gen-X aren't all that far behind. Outsource mania and its cheap visa labor twin had been growing since the 1990s so the younger generations have been shaped in that environment. Does the United States really have that expertise or does it simply have a bunch of guests with that expertise? Should a country have to hope that it can pander to those guests enough for them to stay and be loyal (and possibly disloyal to their homelands)? Doesn't seem very stable in the long run.

	▲	Starman_Jones 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		America is made up of guests who stayed and were loyal. That's the entire US population. Not sure how long of a run you're talking about, but it's worked pretty well for the past 250 years.
	▲	ericmay 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> For how much longer will the United States have that expertise? > Does the United States really have that expertise or does it simply have a bunch of guests with that expertise? The US has the expertise. I’m not totally sure what you are meaning to say with your second sentence - are you saying that only very recent immigrants or those here on various temporary visas have the knowledge or ability do do this stuff?