On October 14, TSMC, a major wafer foundry, held the "TSMC Employee Sports Conference", which was held again by TSMC three years after it was suspended due to the COVID-19 epidemic. In addition to the participation of teams from factories in Taiwan, TSMC Kindergarten and JASM also organized groups to participate for the first time, and were held simultaneously with teams from Shanghai and Nanjing branches.
Zhang Zhongmou: TSMC’s challenges in the next 10 years will be more severe than in the past!
TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou also attended the employee sports meeting. As soon as Zhang Zhongmou entered the venue, he took the initiative to go around the venue and integrate into the employee team. Later, when Zhang Zhongmou took the stage to give a speech, he also stated that he was not a distinguished guest, but one of his own. The annual sports meeting was his happiest day of the year.
Zhang Zhongmou said that this will be his third "homecoming" after retirement. The last time he returned to TSMC was to attend the opening ceremony of TSMC's global R&D center in July.
In his speech, Zhang Zhongmou said that at the 2019 Games, he once said that TSMC has become a battleground for military strategists under geopolitics. Now it seems that TSMC’s challenges in the next ten years will be more severe than in the past.
Zhang Zhongmou pointed out that in terms of semiconductors, globalization and free trade are gone. The most important thing now is regional security, and other companies may take advantage of geopolitical trends to defeat TSMC.
At present, major countries and regions around the world are actively establishing localized semiconductor supply chains. In this regard, TSMC has to follow the trend and make a global layout, such as building factories in the United States, Japan, and Germany.
Zhang Zhongmou said, "I believe that in 20-30 years, the semiconductor manufacturing environment in Taiwan, China will not be as advantageous as it is now." This is also a key factor in TSMC's active overseas expansion in recent years.
Zhang Zhongmou revealed that he will give a speech on the chip industry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in two weeks. Zhang Zhongmou pointed out that from 1955 to the early 1970s, the semiconductor manufacturing environment in the United States was as good as that in Taiwan, China today. However, with the evolution of global economic development and other situations, the United States has lost a large part of its semiconductor manufacturing. However, the United States has upgraded to semiconductor design, and semiconductor design does not require a lot of capital. Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, etc. are all doing semiconductor design.
Zhang Zhongmou has publicly stated many times that it has always been his dream to build a factory in the United States. In 1996, WaferTech was established to invest in building a factory. Although "the dream turned into a nightmare" in just 2 or 3 years, TSMC now is completely different from what it was then. No matter how much better its talents, funds, and technology are, it should be better prepared now.
Zhang Zhongmou said in his speech that TSMC's current talents, funds, and technology are much stronger than those 27 or 8 years ago, and it has a rich experience curve. The more it does, the more costs can be reduced. He believes that his dream at that time may be realized now. But he also emphasized that one must be able to take advantage of this opportunity, so TSMC's active and substantial increase in R&D is the secret to the company's success.
Of course, for TSMC, building a factory in the United States may not be the best choice. After all, building a factory in the United States is not only expensive, but also faces a series of problems such as local culture, laws and regulations, talent, and labor unions. This also directly led to the announcement of the construction of a wafer fab in Arizona in May 2020, which delayed the mass production schedule by one year to 2025.
In contrast, TSMC announced that the construction of a 12~28nm mature process wafer fab in Kumamoto, Japan, is progressing smoothly. It is expected to start installing equipment starting this month and is expected to enter mass production next year. The progress is far ahead of the Arizona wafer fab in the United States.
In this regard, Zhang Zhongmou also said that based on past experience, Japan and Singapore are ideal places to build wafer fabs in the future, but Singapore has relatively few resources. In contrast, Kyushu in Japan has abundant land, water and electricity resources, and Japan is also a place with a good work culture.
Looking to the future, which other countries have a relatively favorable semiconductor manufacturing environment? Zhang Zhongmou said, maybe it is India, Vietnam, Indonesia, but who knows?
Liu Deyin announced a special bonus of NT$800 million
Later, TSMC Chairman Liu Deyin said in his speech that this year's TSMC Games has been held for 26 times since 1993. Except for the temporary events held between the September 21 earthquake and the new coronavirus epidemic, the TSMC Games have been held for 26 times. As the epidemic has slowed down, this event can finally be continued, so that TSMC people who are not usually in the same workplace can come together to unite, cooperate, and contact each other on the sports field to display the spirit of sportsmanship.
Liu Deyin also announced at the scene that all Taiwanese employees with employee ranks 60 to 64, 20 to 26, and 31 to 33 (including assistant managers) can each receive a special bonus of NT$16,000. Taking TSMC’s more than 50,000 grassroots employees into consideration, the total amount of special bonuses issued this time will reach at least NT$800 million.
It is worth mentioning that on November 2, 2019, Zhang Zhongmou and his wife Zhang Shufen participated in the TSMC Sports Games for the first time after retirement. At that time, in addition to Chairman Liu Deyin’s announcement of a big red envelope, each of the 39,000 employees could receive NT$12,000. Zhang Zhongmou also predicted at the time that there would be more red envelopes the following year. However, the games were suspended the following year due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
In his speech at this sports meeting, Liu Deyin also encouraged employees to make the spirit of the sports games "don't be arrogant in victory and don't be discouraged in defeat" into an attitude in daily life. As the company launches its global layout, TSMC has become an international company. He encouraged TSMC people to step out of their comfort zones, adopt tolerance and integration, embrace multiculturalism, base themselves on Taiwan, China, and look at the world.