Read on Twitter
a very little known Taiwanese company might be the most geo-politically important company in the world rn
arguably more important than Exxon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Huawei, Allibaba, Aramco, etc at this moment in time
arguably more important than Exxon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Huawei, Allibaba, Aramco, etc at this moment in time
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or (TSMC) is in the middle of the greatest tech and info war we've seen since the Cold War, but instead of Soviet Comm vs US NeoLiberalism now its the CCP+Transnational Partners vs Economic Nationalists in the US
TSMC might be the most advanced semi-conductor manufacturer in the world and its based in Taiwan.
semiconductors are important because they're at the heart of ALL modern digital devices
taiwan is important because its been at the nexus of US-China relations for decades
semiconductors are important because they're at the heart of ALL modern digital devices
taiwan is important because its been at the nexus of US-China relations for decades
the trump admin knows how important TSMC to the future of our digital infrastructure as well as our info & econ war with China, so they're working with TSMC to build a chip factory in Arizona to reduce our dependence on Asian based markets https://www.wsj.com/articles/taiwan-company-to-build-advanced-semiconductor-factory-in-arizona-11589481659
a couple of days ago the admin also announced its considering adding China’s largest semiconductor manufacturer to a trade blacklist https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/05/us-weighs-trade-ban-smic/
the @EurasiaGroup just put out a good research report detailing the geo-politics of semi-conductors, which is close to on par in importance and in some dimensions more important than the geo-politics of energy
https://www.eurasiagroup.net/files/upload/Geopolitics-Semiconductors.pdf
https://www.eurasiagroup.net/files/upload/Geopolitics-Semiconductors.pdf
key findings:
"US moves to restrict Huawei’s access to cutting-edge chips threaten the viability of the company’s global business & been decisive in giving Washington the upper hand in its bid to convince key allies to ban or sharply restrict Huawei from their 5G rollouts"
"US moves to restrict Huawei’s access to cutting-edge chips threaten the viability of the company’s global business & been decisive in giving Washington the upper hand in its bid to convince key allies to ban or sharply restrict Huawei from their 5G rollouts"
"if the US broadens technology restrictions targeting semiconductors to other Chinese firms and succeeds in driving a wedge between China and Taiwan in the area of semiconductors, it would provoke a sharp response from Beijing, raising risks for global technology supply chains"
"As the US presses ahead with stricter and broader controls over semiconductors and related technologies, it will hasten decoupling of the two countries’ tech sectors while further spurring China’s attempts to establish a separate R&D and production system."
"This will be a messy and costly process that creates significant new risks across the $5 trillion global ICT sector and will continue during the next US administration, regardless of who wins November’s election."
and to connect this all back to bitcoin as @MartyBent pointed out a few months back, the prospect of TSMC manufacturing chips in the US opens up the prospect of miners being able to purchase high quality machines made with hardware that's manufactured in the US
this goes a long way towards reducing not only the US's dependence on Asian manufacturing but also BTC's dependence on Asian manufacturing, increasing the decentralization of the production of hardware powering the bitcoin network thereby increasing its security & fault tolerance
