[mytailorisrich]

Inducing TSMC to bring production capability into the US is all benefits for the US but strategically it is bad for Taiwan.

Indeed, if there are enough fabs in the US then the continued availability of fabs in Taiwan is much less important for the US, and thus Taiwan becomes less important for the US, which obviously has consequences in terms of any US involvement in defence of Taiwan in case of a military conflict with the mainland.

This is the US protecting themselves.

But Taiwan and TSMC don't really have a choice.

[baybal2]

It Taiwanese industry goes belly up, a single fab in US will make zero difference.

A big chunk of semi industry is single vendor, including consumables.

It happens every time when there is an earthquake in Taiwan: the entirety of semi industry, in, and outside of the country stands still for a few weeks.

[MrBuddyCasino]

I don't think the plan is to move significant production capacity to the US. Apple and AMD would still depend on Taiwanese capacity. I can imagine two reasons for the US plant:

- political capital ("bringing hi-tec manufacturing back")

- national security ("manufacturing a few miltec chips")

[gumby]

It can be good for TSMC, due to increased revenue, forestalling competition, reduced risk (earthquake, geopolitical etc).

Whether these things are good for Taiwan at large is a matter of discussion; the decision is not obvious.

[dannyw]

This is true. We have also seen such rapid policy flip flops in the past 5 years, it is untrustable. Even if you consider yourselves a close ally.