A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would likely halt operations of the world’s biggest advanced chip manufacturer, TSMC, and wipe out up to $1 trillion per year from the world’s economy in the first few years, the top US spy has said.
US director of National Intelligence Avril Haines presented the figure as a “general estimate” in a testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Haines also noted in her testimony that the chips produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) are used in 90% of “almost every category of electronic device around the world.”
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If a Chinese invasion prevents TSMC from manufacturing its advanced semiconductors, “it will have an enormous global financial impact that I think runs somewhere between $600 billion to $1 trillion on an annual basis for the first few years,” she added.
“It will also have an impact on our (US) GDP if there was such an invasion of Taiwan and that (TSMC’s production) was blocked,” Haines continued. “It would also have an impact, if they stopped making chips, on China’s economy.”
- Reuters, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena
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US Would ‘Destroy Taiwan Chip Factories if China Invaded’ – BI
