The Taiwanese company TSMC, the American chip manufacturer, is the largest producer of electronic chips, with revenues of $57 billion last year, and the American company Apple accounted for almost a quarter of these revenues.
The company “Samsung” in South Korea is the second largest manufacturer of electronic chips in terms of revenues, as the company’s revenues from chip sales during the year 2020 amounted to about 15 billion dollars, and increased during 2021 to approach 20 billion dollars.
Among the top 8 smart chip makers by revenue, 4 are Taiwanese, 2 Chinese, 1 Korean, and only one American company has managed to generate good revenue from chip sales in the past two years.
The importance of TSMC
The Taiwanese company TCMC alone controls about 54 percent of the world’s electronic chip market share, as well as its intention to expand the establishment of new factories in order to enhance its production capabilities.
The company is the exclusive supplier of electronic chips to Apple, the largest brand in the world, and companies such as Qualcomm and AMD use the Taiwanese company’s chips in their industries.
According to a Reuters report, the company announced the start of construction of a new manufacturing unit in southern Taiwan, with production to start by 2024.
TSMC excelled in the chip industry because of its heavy spending on research and development, as it alone with the Korean company “Samsung” manufactures 5-nanometer chips, which are ultra-small and highly advanced chips at the same time.
worried about tensions
Tensions have increased in recent days between America and China, with the visit of US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan this week, as Beijing and Moscow condemned the visit, while Washington believes that Pelosi is free to visit Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory.
For his part, TSMC President Mark Liu warned in an interview published by CNN this week that his company’s factories would stop operating if tensions spread to military operations between Beijing and Washington.
Liu stressed that his company depends on the movement of supply chains in the industry of its very important advancement, pointing out that his company cannot operate if one of the parties tries to control it using force.
The company’s market value is currently estimated at more than $446 billion, according to Companies Market Cap.
On Wednesday morning, Pelosi told Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen that her visit to the island “unequivocally” shows that the United States will not abandon Taiwan.
China believes that the visit of a high-ranking US official carries America’s tacit recognition of the independence of Taiwan, which China considers an essential part of its territory.
American steps for resettlement
The United States is working to reduce the share of chips of Asian origin, by localizing the chip industry within its territory.
The US Congress has approved a law aimed at providing $52 billion in subsidies to companies that manufacture electronic chips with the aim of increasing reliance on US-made chips, as the US administration considers the country’s dependence on chips imported from abroad to be very dangerous.
Since the start of the Corona pandemic, the automotive, technology, and electronics sectors have been greatly affected by the shortage of electronic chips and semiconductors.
Although Intel recorded a net loss of $ 454 million in the second quarter of 2022, for the first time since the end of 2017, it is working to establish a new factory to produce electronic chips in America.
America, which has the largest economy in the world, is also cooperating with the Taiwanese company TSMC to establish a $12 billion factory to produce chips in Arizona, USA.
Most of the modern high-tech industries depend on electronic chips, especially smart phones, cars, medical devices and even advanced weapons.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, the automotive, technology, and electronics industries have been hit hard by a shortage of chips and semiconductors.
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