Last week, TSMC surprised the semiconductor industry by announcing that Chairman Mark Liu would step down early. According to regulatory disclosures, Liu Deyin will no longer be nominated as a member of TSMC's board of directors and will step down as chairman after the company's next annual shareholder meeting.
TSMC remains healthy as a company and remains strong on the back of the boom in artificial intelligence HPC processors and smartphone SoCs, and Taiwanese media Financial News published an insider report detailing the reasons that led to Liu Qingfeng's resignation.
"Financial News" reported that Liu Deyin was forced to resign as chairman due to the "rout" of the Arizona wafer fab. In 2022-23, Western investors are fearful of possible military conflicts across the Taiwan Strait, and the U.S. government is frantically seeking to make the semiconductor industry supply chain "resilient." This is mainly related to TSMC building cutting-edge semiconductor factories in the United States and receiving some financial and legal assistance from the government.
In 2023, TSMC's plan to build a wafer fab in Arizona (known as "Fab21") was delayed, which may have a strategic impact on U.S. foreign policy.
Original report:
https://www.wealth.com.tw/articles/c470712c-8be1-49bc-9c86-84dab93f25f1