Espionage is a minor reason. Trivial really.

The main reason is the looming threat of invasion of Taiwan from China. Such an action is catastrophic for Taiwan and the US. I thought this was obvious. Guess not.

The US is an easier espionage point for the US to steal technology from Taiwan. Most likely it will happen. But simple espionage isn't enough for this technology to fully transfer. The expertise and knowhow is just too challenging.

Do not let your patriotism blind you from the moral grayness that operates within the US as well.

Does TSMC "own" the technology? Because their fabs are wholly dependent on ASML, a Dutch company. And they're using that to produce tech that's designed in the west as well.

Right, only culturally European people know how to do anything. Those Taiwanese are just factory workers, no expertise at all, that's why Intel is in such good shape these days. Chipmaking is obviously so easy the only reason we let them do it is to keep the price down. /s

They obviously have expertise, the point is that the parent was implying that all the tech involved is exclusively TSMC's, which is also wrong. The parent literally said the US is trying to "steal" TSMC's technology...

So maybe read my comment in context instead of implying racism right off the bat SMH.

Well if TSMC is not doing anything valuable then someone tell the shareholders because ASML is worth almost only half of TSMC.

Why is Apple worth more than ARM and TSMC?

Software

I know the answer. It was rhetorical.

Also you missed that the closer you get to the consumer, the more units you sell. There's less purchasers of tools than consumers.

>> I wonder if Arizona US will be an easier espionage point than Taiwan for China to exfiltrate the tech.

For a US company, probably. They seem to pick up Chinese Ph.D.s with ease.