I Saw the Face of God in a Semiconductor/TSMC Factory
wired.com
wired.com
The article talks about an American journalist’s experience inside TSMC, a Taiwanese company that is at the center of the global semiconductor industry.
Interesting snippets:
1. The company has been around since 1987 and has grown to become one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world. By revenue, TSMC is the largest semiconductor company in the world. It’s now bigger than Meta and Exxon.
2. TSMC produces 92 percent of the world’s most avant-garde chips. It makes a third of all the world’s silicon chips, notably the ones in iPhones and Macs (quintillion transistors for Apple)
3. TSMC has a reputation for being secretive and mysterious, which has only added to its allure.
4. Perks: employees get a 10 percent discount at Burger King. 10% at other outlets too(?)
5. Two qualities set the TSMC scientists apart: curiosity and stamina. Religion, to the author's surprise, is also common. “Every scientist must believe in God,” Liu says.
6. “If you think about conflicts around Taiwan,” Tooze told Klein, “the global semiconductor industry isn’t just the supply chain. It’s one of humanity’s great technological scientific achievements. Our ability to do this stuff at nanoscale is us up against the face of God, in a sense.” When, later, I recite Tooze’s words about God’s face to Mark Liu, he quietly agrees, but refines the point. “God means nature. We are describing the face of nature at TSMC.”