Recently, TSMC was interviewed by CNN, Chairman Liu Deyin said: TSMC's secret weapon is talent, in order to adapt to overseas expansion, TSMC will change the way talent is trained.
TSMC is aggressively expanding overseas
Chips have played a positive role in the economy and science and technology, and chip manufacturers have expanded production, and TSMC, the leading foundry, is no exception.
In the United States, TSMC originally planned to spend $3.5 billion to build a 12-inch wafer fab in Phoenix, Arizona, and is expected to start producing 5nm process chips in the first half of 2024, with a planned production capacity of 20,000 pieces per month.
Later, after TSMC received support from the U.S. government and the state of Arizona, it expanded its investment to $12 billion, upgraded its process to 4nm, and created 1,600 high-tech jobs.
In August 2022, Biden signed the "Chips and Science Act", which will provide $52 billion in subsidies, and TSMC will also increase the investment in the Arizonite fab to $40 billion, produce 4nm chips in 2024, and the second phase of the project is expected to mass produce 3nm chips in 2026.
TSMC has also invested in factories in Japan and Germany.
Japan's Kumamoto Plant 1 started construction in April 2022, the office building has already been put into use, and the production equipment will be shipped to the plant in October 2024, and mass production will begin in the fourth quarter, with a monthly output of 55,000 12-inch wafers.
At its peak, he said, about 6,000 workers were involved in the construction of the plant, which significantly reduced the construction period
The plant was originally planned to be built over a period of three years, but it actually took only one and a half years to complete. This unexpected construction speed made TSMC decide to increase investment and build Kumamoto 2 factory.
Japan has pledged to give 750 billion yen, or about 36.4 billion yuan, in subsidies. The local government has already started planning infrastructure to address traffic congestion, industrial water use, and wastewater discharge.
Recently, it was reported that TSMC has informed its supply chain partners that it is considering building a third chip factory in Kumamoto Prefecture to produce advanced 3nm chips.
In Germany, TSMC also plans to jointly invest 10 billion euros with customers to build a factory, focusing on the production of 28nm special processes, and if it is successfully put into production, it will be TSMC's first wafer factory in Europe.
TSMC has promised that it may expand its factory in the future to produce smaller chips.
Among these plants, the Arizona plant has postponed mass production until 2025 for various reasons.
The main reasons are as follows:
1. Local employees are not skilled in technology and difficult to manage, and the labor union is too strong, which does not allow TSMC to recruit a large number of skilled workers outside;
2. The infrastructure is too collapsed, the water and electricity required by the wafer factory cannot be fully met, and the staff dormitories and catering conditions are too poor, resulting in low work efficiency;
3. TSMC has not received the subsidy it deserves, and the $10 billion subsidy promised at the beginning is now only $5 billion, and it will take many years to get it.
These factors have led to the high cost of TSMC's factories in the United States, reaching 4 times that of Taiwan, China, so TSMC has raised the wafer foundry price by 6%.
According to the current situation of the chip market, TSMC has limited room to continue to raise prices in the future, so this factory may end up being "expensive, wasteful, and busy".
In order to learn a lesson, prevent similar things from happening again, and for the smooth progress of the subsequent expansion plan, TSMC started its "secret weapon" - talent plan.
TSMC's talent plan
Taiwan's talent is TSMC's secret weapon and the key to TSMC's success in chip manufacturing.
In the past, TSMC has always adopted the training method of seniors and juniors, and seniors and seniors with work experience will always selflessly help juniors and juniors learn semiconductor experience and knowledge, and even TSMC founder Dr. Zhang Zhongmou will give lectures to juniors.
This method does not seem realistic, and may even form an embarrassing situation of "apprentices learn and starve to death masters", but in fact, from the outside, it is obviously a miracle, and they must use their talents everywhere, rather than copying other people's talents.
In 2021, TSMC established the "Newcomer Training Center", where all new engineers are required to undergo eight weeks of training at the TSMC Newcomer Training Center.
The new training center has a total of 9 floors, including 20 main machines, 12 measuring equipment, and multiple floors are equipped with lithography, etching and other production line machines, some of which are worth hundreds of millions of yuan.
The training is divided into equipment, process, system learning process and on-duty skills according to the position, and provides the introduction and practical practice of the machine and component functions, and the analysis and solution of machine problems.
The process includes: process introduction, analysis and testing, system engineering includes: production line function introduction, actual machine operation, and duty is mainly to cultivate exception handling and adaptability.
The new training center also cooperates with 7 universities, including Beijing University of Science and Technology, Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Central Committee, Yangming Jiaotong University, Qingdao University, Chengdu University and Sun Yat-sen University, to bridge the gap between the school and the industry, guide new engineers to integrate into TSMC's corporate culture and engineering technology cultivation, and cultivate practical operation, independent thinking and self-learning attitude.
TSMC human resources said: TSMC's overseas manpower management will be adjusted according to the local culture. At the beginning of the operation of each new fab, a specific percentage of manpower is brought from TSMC, and after many years, the number of expatriates is gradually reduced to increase the local manpower.
TSMC says that the lack of talent is a major challenge at the moment, and that it is learning how to manage teams in different and efficient ways around the world and adapt to local ways.
Coping strategies for domestic chips
The competition in the chip field is fierce, and the development of China's chips has attracted global attention.
We have also set a "small goal", that is: independent and controllable, independent development. Reduce dependence on foreign countries and protect their core technologies.
Everyone has seen that Huawei, SMIC, Yangtze River Storage, Changxin Storage, Shanghai Microelectronics, Moore Threads, Bichen Technology, and the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have all been included in the "entity list".
These companies include chip design, manufacturing, memory chips, AI chips, chip technology and other links, which are not for a single item, but for the entire domestic chip industry chain.
If we want to solve the problem of China's chips, we must engage in independent research and development and build a purely domestic chip industry chain.
The first task is to solve the "28nm domestic chip", because the 28nm mature process is related to industrial industrial control, power management, new energy vehicles, home appliances, medical equipment and other fields, and the application of the Yangtze River is up to 70%.
The most important thing is that we have a strong foundation and have achieved localization in 28nm EDA, manufacturing, packaging, materials, and equipment, and 28nm lithography machines will soon be available to everyone.
At the same time, we should also attach importance to scientific and technological talents, and strive to cultivate, retain, and make good use of professional talents.
Intel has Gordon Moore, TSMC has Zhang Zhongmou, and SMIC has Zhang Rujing, and it is precisely because of their attainments in the chip field that the chip process has developed step by step.
If domestic chips also have a large number of professionals, will the future counterattack be far away?
Write to the end
TSMC is actively expanding production, whether it is 28nm mature process, or 5nm and 3nm advanced technology, and has begun to change the way of talent training, which undoubtedly transmits the pressure to domestic chips.
Domestic chips still need to adhere to their original intentions, adhere to independent research and development, and at the same time attach importance to talents, not only to cultivate talents, but also to retain talents, and make good use of talents.
There is no shortage of talents in China, as long as it is rationally used and the outflow is reduced, so why worry about the development of domestic chips?
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