Is it even realistic to expect US fabs to be competitive? I think this article sheds insight into why the US based semiconductor companies like Intel are falling behind.
And moving forward, people are starting to realize the risk of having TSMC manufacture everything in Taiwan, given how little competition they have. If TSMC wouldn't start to move some of their production abroad, they would risk facing import restrictions to western countries or (as already happened) government subsidies to local fabs.
To retain their market share, they were probably forced to set up some fabs abroad.
In the end, I think it's really good for those new countries to have TSMC set up fabs in their countries, both since it guarantees that some production stays available in the case of a war, but also because the TSMC workers will gradually naturalize in the US or Europe and start to work for companies like Intel or ASML and contribute to crosspollination of ideas abilities.
Short term though, cultural conflicts is exactly what one would expect. It's probably very similar to what Western companies experienced when first setting up shops in China or India.
In the beginning Western managers would try to have the locals behave like Western employees when it came to initiative and willingness to "say it as it is" when managers were giving impossible orders.
Over time many would learn that finding really good local managers able to bridge the east/west culture gap could be really helpful.
I'm guessing TSMC will need to do the same thing. Find Western managers (for instance second generation Asians) able to understand both cultures, so they can deal with local employees the way they're used to while also able to work productively with upper management (who would presumably still be Taiwanese).
The United States invented and has historically dominated semiconductors until the last decade or so, so yes.
The problem here is two-fold: Financial misincentives, and the fact anyone who achieves #1 in anything will always fall from grace eventually and often disasterously.
It also doesn't help that the Chinese/Taiwanese are very shrewd people compared to Americans who are... lazy, to say the least. I say that as an American.
If anything, lower salaries in Asian countries indicates that their productivity is lower than in the US.
People in the US work relatively long hours compared to, say, Europe. They're also some of the most creative and agile out there.
I suspect that part of the reason TSMC is having such extreme success right now, is that they're by far the most successful company in Taiwan. When they're looking for people, it's like OpenAI looks for people in the US, they can get almost anyone.
Being expected to come into the office and sit there just because its expected of you seems the opposite of "work ethic" to me....
Some of these can even be contradictory. Some workplaces reward the bravery to provide constructive, honest criticism to coworkers and especially senior management. In other places, such behavior can be seen as disloyal.
But there are also cultures that actively repress people who seem overly eager to give their best. I personally know of places where the union has been going after young people who work at their full capacity as it makes the older workers look bad.
In other places, I've seen laziness being seen as completely acceptable. And particularly in groups that feel underpaid, either relative to management or to coworkers in other countries with higher salaries. ("We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us").
Americans can dominate in anything they feel motivated to, the problem is getting motivated.
Gross manufacturing productivity in, say, Germany may still be higher than most places in Asia.
> The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company; Taiwanese TSMC veterans described their American counterparts as lacking the kind of dedication and obedience they believe to be the foundation of their company’s world-leading success.
I mean, some humility is in order. TSMC are succeeding because of these things, not in spite of them. Given the supposed need for expedience it's best to copy that as-is and then you can tweak it once it's up and running.
This was the conventional wisdom about Japan in the 1980s as well, and they fell into the abyss with everyone else when China was capitalized and could offer labor for 1/4 the cost. The tactics that get you there aren't necessarily the ones that keep you there.