We know that the relations between US and China are not great and have not been so for a long time now and this has been going on since the time of former US President Donald Trump who even started the trade war between the two superpowers but the fact is that Taiwan is a superpower when it comes to chip manufacturing as almost all of the chops being made for the world are manufactured in Taiwanese factories and TSMC is one of the largest manufacturers in the world. It is to be noted that TSMC does have its factories in China as well and last year, US imposed various restrictions on exporting chip equipment from the US to their factories in China.
Now, we have a new development in this regard as South Korea has allowed Samsung and SK Hynix to export their chip equipment to China. This means that Taiwanese factories are also waiting to see if the US announces a similar chip waiver and extends its current deal. Since South Korea was allowed by the US to export its chip equipment, they are hoping for the same for Taiwan as well. In a statement, Taiwan’s economy minister said, “Whether it will be the same treatment as Samsung and SK Hynix, it’s up to the announcement from the U.S. government”. He added “TSMC has already received a one-year waiver, and now we’ll have to see whether the U.S. government will further loosen the measures,”
At the moment, we don’t know how much of the production is being done in TSMC and other chipmakers’ facilities in China as compared to Taiwan, but it is worth noting that for Samsung and SK Hynix, this was a significant proportion because a report says that “Samsung Electronics makes about 40% of its NAND flash chips at its plant in Xian, China, while SK Hynix makes about 40% of its DRAM chips in Wuxi and 20% of its NAND flash chips in Dalian”. It is also reported that both Samsung and SK Hynix control “70% of the global DRAM market and 50% of the NAND flash market as of end-June”.
