An interview with a king of chipmaking

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• 00:18

  The Economist.

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  It’s rare to hear the President of the United States getting too into the weeds,

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  or at least trying to get into the weeds,

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  when it comes to complex manufacturing.

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  And today TSMC has announced that it will construct a second fab here in Phoenix

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  to build chips, three nano chips.

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  The three nano chip.

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  Chips that are three nano.

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  Anyway, you know what I’m saying.

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  But chip making is different.

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  And for good reason.

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  Semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st century economy

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  and really, without the semiconductors, there is no economy.

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  Politicians worry about the semiconductor industry because the supply chain is so precarious.

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  Most of the manufacturing of chips happens in East Asia, in Taiwan, for example.

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  And the machines that are used to make chips come from either Silicon Valley,

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  where some of them are still made, or the Netherlands or Japan.

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  And so there’s not a single region today that can make cutting edge chips on its own.

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  It’s susceptible to snarl ups and bottlenecks.

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  It’s almost like nobody saw it coming.

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