The conspiracy is something that many like, it attracts them and it may on occasion be right, but the reality is always simpler and usually less interesting. The statements of the CEO of TSMC mix that, reality and conspiracy, because as a result of today the branches that come out like tentacles towards countries, companies and logistics contractors make the scenario much more complex.
TSMC on the defensive after supply attacks
If you have followed the news about the semiconductor crisis you will know that many governments and companies have focused their criticism on the production capacity of the Taiwanese giant and on how it is facing and alleviating the problems.
Some figures assure that TSMC has nothing less than the 90% of the market share in terms of state-of-the-art processors, both in terms of performance and technology and a large quota for older, already mature processes. Therefore, the 169 industries that depend on TSMC and its chips are crying out to heaven for orders and times to return to normal. Specifically, the automobile industry is one of the most affected curiously, where even the German Chancellor Angela Merkel he had to travel to the company’s facilities to make his positions clear.
The entire industry rallied to criticize them and the CEO of TSMC responded with something quite interesting:
You are the client of my client’s client. How could [priorizar a los demás] and not give him chips?
The war was served, but TSMC made an important discovery that shows their control of the supply and its chips, which has now been revealed.
More chips are shipped than are put into the products, how is that possible?
The answer, supposedly, comes from the perspective of a tougher trade and technology war between China and the US, so TSMC’s control department was alerted about the supply and what was being done with it. The summary and conclusion could not be more enlightening: there are companies accumulating chips within the supply chain and his whereabouts are unknown, at least that’s what Mark Liu (TSMC CEO) stated.
We are learning, before we didn’t have to do this, sometimes [los clientes] they may not be satisfied, but we have to do what is best for the industry. There are definitely people and companies stockpiling who knows where chips in the supply chain.
In other words, there are companies that are accumulating stock to launch it when the crisis reaches its zenith or when the war between the two superpowers breaks out and the hardest ostilities begin. So the supply is flying to places that are not being specified and where the products that in principle should be on the market are not being created.
Who are these companies? It is unknown, Liu has not disclosed it, but this creates a precedent in price speculation that can no longer be distinguished between artificial and real. Is it a strategy of the Chinese government, the Pentagon or is it something particular and individual to certain companies? We will see how everything unfolds finally and above all, what impact it has on the 5 nm and successive nodes of the future.
