> This huge of an investment in a tech where TSMC will face competition from fabs in lower-cost countries almost certainly means the company believes it can use extensive automation to avoid having labor costs sink their ability to compete on price.
What countries are you imagining that will suddenly become competitive in semiconductor manufacturing? As far as I know there are no up and coming companies of note. (Companies in China are not of note as they have been permanently prevented from further advancement.)
"Permanently prevented" -- semi manufacturing is an engineering problem, not magic. Engineering problems can be solved, unless you think Chinese people are inherently inferior engineers.
Itβs not that easy to duplicate the institutional knowledge of companies like Zeiss, for example, otherwise they would have a lot of competition already.
Yup, this isn't making the cheapest t-shirts possible. The cost of labor is nothing compared to the revenues. For a fab you want a stable government and environment, and good tax/trade situation, and reliable, quality labor.
What countries are you imagining that will suddenly become competitive in semiconductor manufacturing? As far as I know there are no up and coming companies of note. (Companies in China are not of note as they have been permanently prevented from further advancement.)