According to the New York Times, senior US defense officials have recently met with technology executives to encourage them to build new semiconductor production lines in China to prevent TSMC and other manufacturers from cutting off the supply of US chips.

According to the report, anonymous people who participated in the talks said that the reason for the talks was that the US government found that the military is increasingly relying on chips manufactured outside China, especially in Taiwan, where TSMC has an important position in the commercial chip field. The chips it produces can be used in spacecraft, satellite, drones and wireless communications. According to people familiar with the matter, some senior defense officials and chip makers are concerned that suppliers in Taiwan will limit or cut off chip supply.

Liu Deyin, chairman of TSMC, said that he recently discussed with the Ministry of Commerce the construction of a new factory in the United States. He said that the main obstacle is funding; a large amount of subsidies are needed because the operating costs in the United States far exceed that of Taiwan.

“Everything depends on when we can narrow the cost gap,” he said in an interview.

It is reported that the US Department of Defense has been worried for a long time. The United States has been using electronic components that were once only produced in its own country in its most advanced weapons, but the domestic production lines of many chips have already been transferred abroad, raising fears that once there is political or military foreign In the crisis, supply will be interrupted. The importance of special components continues to increase. For example, programmable chips that have played a prominent role in the F-35 fighter jet were developed by Silicon Valley, and are manufactured primarily in Taiwan. In addition, the wireless baseband processor required by the new generation of 5G communication capabilities that the United States values, its manufacturing technology is in the hands of TSMC.

Earlier, Lisa Porter, deputy director of research and engineering in the United States, said at a technology event in Los Angeles that ensuring the security of key components and software supply chains is a "macro" issue that the US Department of Defense and technology companies must work together to solve.

In this regard, the United States has taken corresponding measures, Minnesota chip manufacturing service provider SkywaterTechnology this week announced that the Ministry of Defense will invest 170 million US dollars to help it increase capacity and improve technology, such as the production of chips capable of withstanding space radiation.

The panel recommended that the federal government subsidize more domestic chip production. However, the cost of an advanced commercial plant can be as high as $15 billion, in addition to the recurring costs of operations, manning and supply of these facilities.

According to the report, TSMC is the leader in order manufacturing services called "chip foundry". In recent years, it has been ahead of Intel in reducing chip circuits to enhance chip performance. The manufacturing advantage is one of the reasons why it continues to receive orders from large US chip design companies such as Apple, Qualcomm and NVIDIA, whose chips are increasingly important in defense and civilian use.