A community for news and discussion about the hardware side of technology.
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Whose bright ass idea was it to geolocate our most sensitive manufacturing capabilities to some of the most susceptible to natural disaster areas? If it's not earthquakes, it's Tsunamis or hurricanes lol
It was limited options at first and then increased cost later, I speculate. New fabs are built in much better locations.
TSMC likely had to build in-country when they started and didn't have other options. Chip fabs require some serious precision and those factories need specialized vibration resistant foundations. Hell, even Kodak had to build on a massive, specialized foundation and that was just for film manufacturing. (See Kodak factory tours; Smarter Every Day on YouTube)
That is just one example that I can think of, but long term cost and the willingness of friendly countries to host a foreign company, in that capacity, are what come to mind first.
At least it's geopolitically stable and conveniently nearby.