TSMC Eyes Japanese Subsidy for Second Chip Plant Amid Growing Demand

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) enters talks with Japan for subsidized funding of a new Kyushu chip plant to mitigate the short supply of previous-gen chips, even as employee satisfaction issues spark debates.

However, the planned factory will not manufacture next-generation semiconductors, as they are already made in the U.S., according to TSMC Chairman Mark Liu. He added that another reason is that many customers think previous-generation models are in short supply.

The Japanese government is subsidizing up to $3.41 billion for the Kikuyo project, which has been joined by Denso Corp and Sony Group Corp. The largest contract chip manufacturer in the world, TSMC, also intends to construct a facility in Germany and is currently negotiating a subsidy with the German government. Years.

Meanwhile, Liu told the company's U.S. employees who are dissatisfied with their "brutal" workplace culture should not be in this industry. Liu emphasized that the industry does not depend on high salaries but on employees with a genuine interest in being a part of it. He was responding to questions following an article published in Fortune that outlined TSMC's U.S. employees' dissatisfaction with the company's working conditions.

The article quoted a TSMC employee saying that the company is about obedience and is not ready for the U.S. Another employee complained about the standard twelve-hour days and common weekend shifts that he described as brutal.

In February, Taiwanese TSMC workers voiced worries that their American coworkers wouldn't be able to keep up with them and that the American and Taiwanese work cultures would conflict. The concerns arose as the business moved through with its plans to invest US$40 billion in manufacturing facilities in Arizona.

According to Liu, TSMC personnel from the U.S. and Taiwan are not required to carry out tasks in the same way. But he emphasized that employees must uphold the company's key values of honesty, reliability, innovation, and upholding client trust.

Photo: Briáxis F. Mendes (孟必思)/Wikimedia Commons(CC BY-SA 4.0)