• xodasu@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    About time someone put serious money into advanced fabs outside Taiwan, this is a smart play by TSMC to chase AI demand and hedge geopolitical risk. 3nm in Kumamoto is a big vote of confidence for Japan and a signal that the industry sees AI chips as where the margins are.

    That said, don’t expect a flood of 3nm product overnight. Ramping 3nm in a brand new fab is brutally hard, yields take months if not years, and skilled fab workers and equipment are not plug-and-play. Bumping the budget to $17B and promising late 2027 is fine on paper, but the real work is the grind of volume ramp and supply chain readiness.

    Also meh about the cheerleading from politicians. Sure, public support matters, but taxpayers deserve transparency on what they’re subsidizing. Overall I’m cautiously optimistic, but staying realistic: this helps diversify capacity, but it’s neither cheap nor quick.