Pentagon Pressures Taiwan Semi to Produce Chips In U.S.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is being pressured by the Pentagon to produce its military-use chips in the U.S., in order to ensure the potential of Chinese interference.

TSMC makes computer chips for the American F-35 fighter jets and serves as a key supplier to Apple as well as Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies.

“The U.S. government wants chips that go into military projects to be built on American soil,” a senior Taiwanese government official, who was briefed about Washington’s approaches to TSMC given the company’s strategic and technological importance, told Nikkei. “That’s for national security concerns, and they [the U.S.] don’t plan to back off on that.”

TSMC, which holds a 50% share of the world’s chip foundry business, supplies computer chips to Huawei and American tech giants such as Google, Qualcomm and Intel. The Taiwanese company also supplies high-performance chips for U.S. military suppliers such as Xilinx, which in turn makes components for American F-35 fighter jets and satellites.

Source:  Nikkei Asian Review