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upstart writes:

Free trade not quite as dead, 'but it's in danger' says Morris Chang:

Globalization is over, at least for the chip industry, and this will mean higher chip prices, according to semiconductor contract manufacturer giant TSMC. Despite this, the company's founder said he supports US actions to slow the development of China's chip technology.

The Taiwanese chip company is caught up in the ongoing semiconductor battle between the superpowers, where the US is trying to prevent China from getting access to cutting edge technology that might be used by its burgeoning military. At least, that is the reason given.

At an event hosted by Taiwan's CommonWealth Magazine in Taipei, retired TSMC founder Morris Chang said that efforts to contain China were leading to a split in the global supply chain that would likely increase prices and could have an effect on chip availability.

"There's no question in my mind that, in the chip sector, globalization is dead. Free trade is not quite that dead, but it's in danger," Chang said.

[...] It has already been noted that US efforts to isolate China are leading to an undoing of the distributed global supply chain infrastructure that has built up over the past few decades.

Richard Gordon, practice vice president for semiconductors and electronics at Gartner, told us earlier this year the outcome may be a world divided into China-centric and US-Europe-centric networks of supply chains and a greater self-reliance within those blocks.

Meanwhile, TSMC is also discussing subsidies with officials for the German state of Saxony about a new fabrication plant the chip giant is aiming to build there, despite publicly stating in December that it had no plans to site any facilities in Europe.

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