If China one day decides to invade Taiwan, it will not get its hands on TSMC’s most sensitive production lines and its machines. The firm, the first independent foundry in the world, would in fact have a device for the remote destruction of certain installations.
Taiwan and China will be “ certainly reunited », Declared Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during his New Year’s speech. With these words, the person recalled China’s wish to reintegrate Taiwan, independent since 1949, into its fold, over the next few years… and this either way.
In this context, and as tensions between China and the West increase, the possibility of an invasion of the island by mainland China cannot unfortunately be ruled out. American intelligence services also estimate that China would theoretically be able to invade Taiwan in 2027 if it wishes. Enough to force the giants of Taiwanese industry to take steps to prepare for this sad eventuality. And obviously, TSMC, a major player in the semiconductor market, is one of the groups concerned, and probably prepared.
TSMC would be ready for remote destruction of certain production lines
We actually learn from Bloomberg that the American authorities spoke with the government of the Netherlands to express their concerns about a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and what could happen, in this hypothesis, to the very numerous lines of production of semiconductors present on site.
What does this have to do with TSMC and why this exchange with the Dutch government? Because of ASML, a world leader in the manufacturing of machines designed for EUV (extreme ultraviolet) engraving, which happens to be Dutch, based in Veldhoven. In short, these ultra-sophisticated machines developed in Holland are used in particular by TSMC to engrave chips from Apple, Nvidia, AMD and many others. They are the ones that constitute most of the production capacities of the semiconductor giants in Taiwan.
ASML’s degree of preparation for a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan is therefore central to protecting, if necessary, the industrial interests of the big names in Tech. But also to prevent China from accumulating too much loot.
In this case, we discover that ASML would indeed have given assurances to the Dutch government. Two people familiar with these discussions affirm that the firm would have the capacity to remotely deactivate its machines in the event that such a threat materializes. The idea would then be to do everything so that these do not fall into the hands of China… at least without having first been rendered unusable.
ASML and its EUV machines… the sinews of a war?
In turn, we can therefore reasonably believe that TSMC, one of the main users of ASML machines, is ready to remotely destroy its most sensitive production lines in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and a potential takeover of its various sites on the island.
What must be understood is that 90% of the most efficient chips on the market are manufactured in Taiwan using several dozen machines from ASML. Particularly expensive and coveted machines. About the size of a bus, each is worth just over $217 million. They would therefore constitute particularly attractive spoils of war.
Their recovery by mainland China in open conflict would undoubtedly benefit Chinese industry… something the United States and its allies of course want to avoid.
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