The Silicon Shield is real, but it’s also overrated. Both Washington and Beijing have a strong interest in TSMC continuing to function. Neither side wants to be cut off from advanced chips. China has spent enormous sums trying to build a domestic alternative, with limited success at the leading edge. The U.S. passed the CHIPS Act and is subsidizing TSMC fabs in Arizona and elsewhere. But Taipei has banned TSMC from making its most advanced chips abroad, so the bleeding edge stays on the island for the foreseeable future. That mutual dependence does create a deterrent against the most catastrop
Taiwan’s chips power the global economy. China holds the leverage… These hiccups are nothing compared to the effects of a serious disruption to the flow of chips from Taiwan, according to Eyck Freymann, a Hoover fellow at Stanford University, and author of a new book, Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War With China. …
… But author Stephen Witt predicted, in an interview with Rest of World , that with the Trump administration’s tariffs and export controls, Huang “must deal with politics as the disruption to his business is too severe.” In May, Huang publicly said that U.S. chip curbs had failed. …
… And the middle powers remain exposed to the disruptions that AI could cause, even if they don’t necessarily capture the benefit. So they’re still exposed to job-related disruption , the social effects of AI systems. …