TSMC boss upbeat on outlook as AI boom shows no sign of easing - mediaselangor.com

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, remains optimistic about its future growth amid the sustained boom in artificial intelligence (AI). At its an... Read original →

The AI compute arms race has cemented TSMC’s irreplaceable position. The heavy reliance of 3nm and upcoming 2nm nodes on EUV lithography not only raises entry barriers but also tightly couples the entire AI chip ecosystem—from NVIDIA’s Blackwell to Intel’s Gaudi—to manufacturing capacity in Taiwan, China. This technical lock-in reshapes global semiconductor specialization: the denser the performance demands, the harder it is for fabless firms to escape TSMC’s grip. Yet geopolitical exposure intensifies—while U.S. CHIPS Act subsidies ease near-term capex pressure, TSMC’s Arizona fab struggles with yield ramp, revealing limits to tech transference. Over the next 12–24 months, tighter U.S.-China export controls on advanced tools could force TSMC to accelerate backup fabs in Japan and Europe, inflating costs and complexity. Samsung may exploit HBM3E yield gains to undercut prices and grab AI foundry share. The real long-tail effect? AI chip demand has shifted from 'boom' to 'institutionalized,' making TSMC less a contract manufacturer and more critical infrastructure in the contest over digital sovereignty.