I love how everyone on this thread is giving energy advice to the country that "makes the world's computer chips". Surely they have a couple of smart people on that island…
If a party has been anti-nuclear for decades, they won't change their stance even in the face of reality, and regardless of the actual facts and arguments.
People sharing ideas here is just a waste of time. People are smart in Taiwan and can come up with the solutions themselves.
The problems have to be elsewhere. They’re not lacking smart ideas for sure.
The reason Taiwan is valuable is because they are allowed to import western tech that China is not allowed to have, and the labor is somehow cheaper there to operate it.
Labor costs constitute just 5-10% of cutting-edge chips fabs like those operated by TSMC. The company’s operating profit margin is around 40%.
If it were just labor costs, there’d already be such fabs in several countries given how strategically important chips are in modern life and national security.
Without the equipment from ASML, Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing would be nothing, we wouldn't even be talking about them - they wouldn't be "operating the most advanced chip fabs in the world". The fact is, the high-tech of Taiwan is imported. While they may have smart people in Taiwan, they were not the ones who created this advanced tech.
Labor costs absolutely do have a lot to do with why these fabs are located in Taiwan, as well as other lower costs than in the U.S. due to regulations and everything that comes with running manufacturing in the U.S.
But my point stands that Taiwan imports their semiconductor fab equipment, as well as their power generation facilities. It's a small island, there's only so much that they can build there. Just because an island can produce advanced semiconductors does not mean they have the capability to build power stations themselves.
By the same token, ASML wouldn’t be where they are without advanced components from other countries.
In today's world, no country is the most advanced in every tech.
> The reason Taiwan is valuable is because they are allowed to import western tech that China is not allowed to have, and the labor is somehow cheaper there to operate it.
ASML can export to many countries. Why can't any other country in the West or which is a Western ally afford to subsidize the 5-10% extra profit margin for labor costs and successfully build a similarly advanced fab like TSMC's for strategic reasons and to make significant profits as well?
Regarding nuclear power plants, they might not currently have the capability because it's not their priority to develop it, and they can quite easily hire companies from other countries to build them. Comparative advantage and all that.
There’s a lot to care about wrt Taiwan, I will say.
The ego on display in the programming world is just astonishing.