I believe the government of Taiwan seen TSMC as existentially important -- the company is so valuable and unique that attacking them is essentially an attack on the world economy.
What about a slow seemingly unarmed takeover?
I think it's unlikely that the west would respond militarily, and that's probably what the Chinese govt counts on.
I mean, I guess if China convinces Taiwan to peacefully rejoin them, that's their right, and it'd really be none of our business, right? It seems like it would be quite a stretch, though, given recent events in the area. In any case, such a change would be slow enough that we could switch over gracefully.
Intel and Samsung are only a couple nodes behind, it would be expensive and annoying to change over but we'd manage it. I mean, go back 5 years, right? Computers have not massively changed since then.
