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TSMC Chief Says Altman’s $7trln Chip Plan ‘Too Aggressive’ – TH

TSMC’s new chairman has hailed hailed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s $7-trillion plan to create new fabrication plants for artificial intelligence as “too aggressive for me to believe”


This file photo shows TSMC's CEO and chairman CC Wei, left, with Mark Liu at a conference in Taipei, April 2017 (Reuters).

 

TSMC’s new chairman CC Wei “came out of the gates swinging” on his first day as the tech conglomerate’s new chairman, at the group’s 2024 shareholders’ meeting earlier this week, where he hailed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s $7 trillion plan to create new fabrication plants for artificial intelligence as “too aggressive for me to believe”, according to a report by Tom’s Hardware, which noted that back in February, when Altman’s ambitious plan was revealed, Wei had insisted that [rival chipmakers] Samsung and Intel “have no way to compete with TSMC.”

Wei has taken over from Mark Liu, who was “reportedly forced to retire” last December because of delays and other problems at the company’s new plant in Arizona, it said, adding that Wei will have a lot on his plate as he will also have to deal with China’s desire to take over the island, which US officials have said could devastate America’s supply of critical tech components.

This had led to the revelation that the company’s advanced chipmaking machines are equipped with remote ‘kill’ switches that render them incapable of operated in the event of an invasion, while Wei has said that moving the company’s fabs off the island is not possible, partly because a lot of their key suppliers and partners are also on the island.

Read the full report: Tom’s Hardware.

 

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Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd papers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before travelling through SE Asia in the late 90s. He was a senior editor at The Nation for 17+ years.