TSMC founder, Kamala Harris talk chips at APEC meeting
ROC Central News Agency
11/19/2022 10:15 PM
Bangkok, Nov. 19 (CNA) Morris Chang (張忠謀), Taiwan's envoy to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Thailand, and United States Vice President Kamala Harris talked mostly about chips when they met Saturday, he said at a press conference that evening.
Chang, founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, said Harris focused mostly on semiconductors during their conversation and welcomed TSMC's investment in Arizona.
He was referring to TSMC's US$12 billion investment to build a 5nm wafer fab in Arizona that is expected to have a capacity of 20,000 12-inch wafers per month.
The 91-year-old Chang said he told Harris that TSMC had invited the U.S. secretary of commerce and its "grand alliance" partners to a "tool-in" ceremony on Dec. 6, which will mark the installation of the first batch of production equipment in the Arizona plant.
Earlier this year, Chang expressed skepticism over the potential success of the Arizona plant because of the high costs of operating in the U.S. and the potential lack of suitable workers.
When reminded of those concerns Saturday, Chang did not back down, saying he "not only believes but knows" that costs in the U.S. will be about 55 percent higher than in Taiwan.
"But that does not mitigate against moving some capacity to the United States...and that will be the most advanced capacity of any company in the U.S.," he said. "And that is very important to the U.S."
Chang also said that the vice president reiterated "the U.S.'s determination to help Taiwan," but he did not indicate if anything more was said on that issue.
The TSMC founder, meanwhile, met Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) briefly on Friday morning, but he said their conversation did not go beyond exchanging "delightful" pleasantries.
The encounter was their first one since the 2018 APEC summit in Papua New Guinea, a fact that Xi reminded Chang of during their conservation.
Chang said he congratulated Xi on the successful 20th Communist Party congress in October and also brought up a hip operation he had earlier this year, to which Xi replied that Chang was looking well.
The two did not get into anything more substantive, Chang said, but he did note that several leaders he talked to during the two-day meeting brought up regional tensions, including in the Taiwan Strait, and they expressed their "strong desire" for peace and stability in the region.
Chang said he did not deliver any specific messages on behalf of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to the leaders at the summit during private meetings, saying that everything the president wanted to convey was conveyed through his two speeches in Bangkok.
Meanwhile, when asked about whether TSMC would invest in other APEC economies, Chang said TSMC was already building plants in the U.S. and Japan, and could consider other places.
He said he met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and indicated that Kishida was "very satisfied" with TSMC's cooperation with Japan through its factory and R&D initiatives.
Chang is serving as Taiwan's envoy for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting for the sixth time. With the two-day summit ending on Saturday, Chang is expected to return to Taiwan on Sunday.
(By Joy Tseng and Teng Pei-ju)
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