How Taiwan Became a Global Force in Chip Production

On a chilly day in February 1974, seven men gathered over breakfast at a soy milk stall in Taipei to map out Taiwan’s foray into semiconductor manufacturing. In an anecdote that is now legendary, Pan Wen-yuan, who was then a US-based research director at Radio Corporation of America (RCA), advised Sun Yun-suan, the minister for economic affairs, to develop integrated circuits.

It would cost $10 million and four years for the technology to take root in Taiwan, Pan said. The plan was approved, and Taiwan managed to persuade RCA, then a dominant electronics company in the US, to agree in 1976 to transfer semiconductor technology

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Fast-forward 43 years to the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California this week where Apple chief executive Tim Cook stood on stage to unveil the iPhone 11, featuring the “fastest ever” A13 Bionic processor made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC).

Set up in 1987, TSMC is today the world’s biggest contract chip manufacturer, accounting for about half of the market share among foundries producing chips that go into everything from the iPhone 11 to bitcoin-mining rigs.

Source: Inkstone News (quoted from South China Morning Post)