Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's departing president stated Wednesday that the island's flagship chip manufacturer's intention to open a factory in the United States was "a good move."

In an interview at The New York Times' DealBook Summit, he explained that the move by Taiwan Smiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), shows allies and friends that Taiwan was contributing to "building the supply chain resilience," and that Taiwan would be able to utilize resources available in the United States, particularly human resources.

Tsai also stated that Taiwan was "pretty confident" that the US factory would not undermine Taiwan's global competitiveness in advanced semiconductor manufacturing since its "semiconductors clusters...for production cannot be...rebuilt or replaced...elsewhere."

TSMC, the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, announced plans to open a factory in Arizona in 2020. The $40 billion project is expected to be completed in 2025.

As part of the overall $40 billion investment, TSMC said in a statement following the board meeting that it had also approved a capital infusion of no more than $4.5 billion for the Arizona factory.

In August, the company said its board had approved a 3.5-billion euro ($3.8 billion) investment for the construction of its first European factory, in Germany.

TSMC has been since 2021 in discussions with the German state of Saxony about constructing a manufacturing facility, or "fab," near Dresden.

The company currently runs a plant in Japan under a joint venture with Sony.

Tsai  says China invasion 'unlikely for now

Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, claimed that although Beijing is attempting to influence the country's next election, Beijing is unlikely to consider a big invasion of Taiwan at this time owing to domestic issues.

Tsai stated at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York, "I think the Chinese leadership at this juncture is overwhelmed by its internal challenges."

In a taped interview, she continued, "My feeling is that maybe now is not the right time for them to consider a major invasion of Taiwan."

Following the widely reported meeting this month in California between US and Chinese presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, Tsai was answering queries concerning the potential dangers of an invasion.

US vulnerabilities running deep

Due to the global microchip shortage, the US economy lost last year $240 billion, and a war over Taiwan would be even more catastrophic for the US due to its reliance on one single supplier, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

TSMC makes more than 90% of the world’s most developed microchips, as per the Capital Economics research group, and the company’s market share is only likely to expand. TSMC executives in a July earnings call projected 30% growth this year, which would put total annual revenue well over $70 billion.

US tech giants like Intel, Apple, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and AMD all depend on TSMC, while the US government depends on it for some of the most complex systems.

US tech giants like Intel, Apple, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and AMD all depend on TSMC, while the US government depends on it for some of the most complex systems.