This has absolutely nothing to do with AI or LLMs. Generally these are automation chips for machinery or vehicles.
"Microsoft made him walk that one back real quick"
This sounds like a weird fan fiction. OpenAI openly negotiates with EU governments. No one walked back anything.
AMD is already there and Intel is building in Lower Saxony. Must be something about the region, perhaps the chemistry since the Erzgebirge has a history in mining. Meisner Porcelain for example beat Venice and replaced good old China (pun intended).
> No one walked back anything.
I'm not sure about that (haven't heard this story).
My impression is that EU sticks to discretion very much, and they aren't free from corruption. The US on the other hand is not known to play nice with matters of law in international affairs (Edit: shouldn't have said "international law").
Taiwan is a partner was the point, I believe. Of course they aren't going to give away the crown jewels either.
Following Occam's razor, perhaps it's that it's just cheaper?
"The monthly pay ranking of German states is headed by Hamburg with 3,619 euros, followed by Baden-Württemberg with 3,546 euros and Hesse with 3,494 euros. The lowest salaries are received by employees in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with an average of 2,391 euros. Slightly more is earned in Thuringia with 2,459 euros and Saxony with 2,479 euros."[0]
[0] https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/business/pay-in-germany-...
Can you expand on this claim?
(I'm deliberately resisting quoting sources listing German regions top exports!)
Those centers of technology with their attached universities were mainly located in Dresden (Robotron) and Jena (Carl Zeiss) and some smaller locations sprinkled over the southern half of East Germany.
This 'micro-electronics tradition' carried over into the 90's after the reunification and continues until the present time.
I responded to someone who seems to believe this is the great AI equalizer. This fab has no relevance to AI. And FWIW, Europe already has a number of much more advanced fabs! Intel is currently upgrading Ireland to "Intel 4" spec (which in TSMC land would be 7nm), and is building other fabs, for instance.
Ultimately this story is "German automakers want more control over supply chain of vanilla automation chips", and not much more.
As an aside, it's always interesting that we talk about Taiwan's revered chip prowess (South Korea is up there as well)...when the Dutch company ASML is really the technology key. TSMC executes extraordinarily well, but they wouldn't be doing it without ASML.
Globalization has failed on many fronts and resulted in race to the bottom outcomes, but here it works well due to specialization.
Having understood that, one can also see a core TSMC strength is that Taiwanese workers are disciplined and work long hours for moderate pay, a culture that European and American labor will never accept. So all these new factories in US/EU should be treated as high cost alternatives, justifiable only for non cost-sensitive customers like defence/aerospace/high end cars.