On January 18, The Wall Street Journal published a report titled “Taiwan’s Flagship Chip Maker Charts a Future Beyond Taiwan”, analyzing the commercial and geopolitical considerations behind TSMC’s decision to expand operations in the United States. The report cited comments from Jeremy Chih-Cheng Chang, CEO of the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET).
The article noted that TSMC has long aimed to expand overseas to be closer to major U.S. clients such as NVIDIA and Apple, while mitigating potential geopolitical risks. Against the backdrop of the U.S.-Taiwan agreement announced on January 15, which lowers Taiwan’s tariffs to 15%, TSMC’s U.S. investment plan is seen as signaling that the company’s “American moment” has arrived.
The Wall Street Journal cited some regional experts who suggested that TSMC could relocate most of its advanced processes outside Taiwan over the next several decades, potentially reshaping the so-called “Silicon Shield.” Some critics in Taiwan argue that President Lai Ching-te may be ceding too much TSMC capacity, which could affect Taiwan’s security, while Chinese officials have accused the Taiwanese government of handing over critical technology to the U.S.
However, Chang expressed a different view. He emphasized that Taiwan’s trained talent pool and manufacturing ecosystem continue to give it a leading position in semiconductor production, making it difficult for the U.S. to replace. He also noted that producing the most advanced chips in the U.S. is “extremely expensive and inefficient.”
C.C. Wei, TSMC’s chief executive, stated at the end of 2025 that, to meet customer demand, the company plans to accelerate plans to bring its most sophisticated technology, currently used only in Taiwan, to Arizona in response to customer demand. However, when this technology is deployed in the U.S., TSMC is expected to have already adopted the next-generation process technology in Taiwan.
