Interpretation of Taiwan's chip industry model

Principle Investigator：Mei Lin Pan

Taiwan is currently the most important wafer manufacturing center in the world. Taiwan Semiconductor Corporation, TSMC, is known as the（huguo shenshan／"Sacred Mountain that protects the nation."）The world relies on the high-end chips produced by TSMC. It is an existence that cannot be ignored on the international political and economic map. Factors that threaten TSMC's production or Taiwan's security equal the risk of disruption to the chip supply and production chain. In order to ensure the supply of chips, many countries not only actively strengthen and establish a solid relationship with Taiwan's chip industry, but also hope to win over TSMC to set up factories there, or even further hope to copy TSMC's model to diversify their dependence on Taiwan's production of chips. This process also constitutes the transfer and reconstruction of the global supply chain of semiconductor industry. So, how to replicate TSMC’s model? is the main research question, exploring how countries currently at different positions in the chip industry supply chain explain the TSMC model, especially the United States, Japan, and South Korea, as well as countries with important geopolitical players, especially China, how to explain the TSMC model, and how these explanations affect the layout of the global chip industry and the possible consequences for social systems.