Led by TSMC, Taiwan by far holds the largest share of leading-edge (i.e., <10nm) IC capacity (63%) of any country in the world. South Korea, represented by Samsung, holds the remaining 37%.

As of December 2020, Taiwan held the largest share of IC industry capacity of any country or region in the world, says IC Insights.

Combined with China’s IC capacity, the share of IC capacity within the borders of China and Taiwan would represent about 37% of global IC capacity, about 3x the amount of IC capacity located in North America.

Taiwanese companies hold almost 90% of Taiwan’s total IC capacity.

The only non-Taiwanese IC fabs located in Taiwan are a small 150mm fab owned by U.S.-based Diodes and two advanced 300mm DRAM fabs owned by Micron (Fab 11 in Taoyuan with a capacity of 108K wafers per month and Fab 16 in Taichung with a capacity of 100K wafers per month).

Taiwan holds 22% of the world’s 300mm IC capacity, second only to South Korea, which holds a 25% share.

In contrast, North America possesses only an 11% share of global 300mm IC capacity.

About 80% of Taiwan’s total IC capacity is dedicated to foundry production. Moreover, Taiwan’s pure-play foundries (i.e., TSMC, UMC, Powerchip, Vanguard, etc.) are forecast to represent almost 80% of the total worldwide pure-play foundry market in 2021.

China has a huge problem with its inability to produce leading-edge IC devices for its future electronic system needs—a problem that it believes can be solved through reunification with Taiwan by whatever means necessary.

While the Taiwanese economy would crater if China attempted a military takeover of the island nation, China’s economy would also suffer greatly.

The question is whether China is willing to accept relatively short-term economic pain for the long term benefit of having the largest amount of the world’s leading-edge IC production capacity under its control for many years to come.

By: DocMemory
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