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Taiwan’s TSMC Building $10 Billion Semiconductor Plant in Germany

Minister-President of the Saxony state Michael Kretschmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, C.C. Wei, Chairman and CEO of TSMC and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Taiwanese chip maker TSMC's first European plant in the eastern city of Dresden, Germany, August 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Minister-President of the Saxony state Michael Kretschmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, C.C. Wei, Chairman and CEO of TSMC and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Taiwanese chip maker TSMC's first European plant in the eastern city of Dresden, Germany, August 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Taiwan’s TSMC Building $10 Billion Semiconductor Plant in Germany

Minister-President of the Saxony state Michael Kretschmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, C.C. Wei, Chairman and CEO of TSMC and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Taiwanese chip maker TSMC's first European plant in the eastern city of Dresden, Germany, August 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Minister-President of the Saxony state Michael Kretschmer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, C.C. Wei, Chairman and CEO of TSMC and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Taiwanese chip maker TSMC's first European plant in the eastern city of Dresden, Germany, August 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) broke ground in eastern Germany on its first European plant as the continent seeks to safeguard its chip supplies amid growing US-China tensions.

“We are dependent on semiconductors for our sustainable future technologies, but we must not be dependent on other regions of the world for the supply of semiconductors,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who attended a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the start of construction of the 10 billion euros ($11 billion) manufacturing plant in the city of Dresden. About half of the funding will be covered by state subsidies.

Germany is leading the European Union push to produce one-fifth of the world's semiconductors by 2030, with the bloc seeking to build up capacity following Covid-era disruptions and as US-China ties deteriorate.

The US, Japan and others are also showering subsidies on the chip industry to localize production of the components that control everything from cutting-edge artificial intelligence to daily gadgets.

TSMC is the world's biggest contract chipmaker, with Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp relying on it for their most important products. It will anchor the Dresden project with a 70% stake in the plant, which will produce chips for the automotive and industrial sectors.

TSMC CEO C.C. Wei attended the event together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the heads of Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors NV and Robert Bosch GmbH, which each hold a 10% stake in the venture.

Scholz has emerged as Europe's biggest backer of the semiconductor industry as he seeks to promote Germany's tech sector and secure supplies of critical components for the country's manufacturing businesses.

His government plans to spend 20 billion euros to bolster domestic chip production. That includes the TSMC plant and 10 billion euros in aid for a planned Intel Corp plant in Magdeburg.

The EU approved Germany's 5 billion euros subsidy for the Dresden microchip manufacturing plant, von der Leyen said at the event.

The new site will help Europe reduce its reliance on Asia for importing vital technology and comes after German carmakers expressed interest in boosting domestic chip production. Production is slated to begin by the end of 2027.

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TikTok Warns of Broader Consequences if US Supreme Court Allows Ban

US, Chinese flags, TikTok logo and gavel are seen in this illustration taken January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
US, Chinese flags, TikTok logo and gavel are seen in this illustration taken January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
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TikTok Warns of Broader Consequences if US Supreme Court Allows Ban

US, Chinese flags, TikTok logo and gavel are seen in this illustration taken January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
US, Chinese flags, TikTok logo and gavel are seen in this illustration taken January 8, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The lawyer for TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance offered a warning during Supreme Court arguments over a law that would compel the sale of the short-video app or ban it in the United States: If Congress could do this to TikTok, it could come after other companies, too. The law, which was the subject of arguments before the nine justices on Friday, sets a Jan. 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell the popular social media platform or face a ban on national security grounds. The companies have sought, at the very least, a delay in implementation of the law, which they say violates the US Constitution's First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech, Reuters said.
Noel Francisco, representing TikTok and ByteDance, argued that Supreme Court endorsement of this law could enable statutes targeting other companies on similar grounds.
"AMC movie theaters used to be owned by a Chinese company. Under this theory, Congress could order AMC movie theaters to censor any movies that Congress doesn't like or promote any movies that Congress wanted," Francisco told the justices.
The justices signaled through their questions during the arguments that they were inclined to uphold the law, although some expressed serious concerns about its First Amendment implications.
TikTok is a platform used by about 170 million people in the United States, roughly half the country's population. Congress passed the measure last year with overwhelming bipartisan support, as lawmakers cited the risk of the Chinese government exploiting TikTok to spy on Americans and carry out covert influence operations.
Jeffrey Fisher, the lawyer representing TikTok content creators who also have challenged the law, noted during the Supreme Court arguments that Congress with this measure was focusing on TikTok and not major Chinese online retailers including Temu.
"Would a Congress (that is) really worried about these very dramatic risks leave out an e-commerce site like Temu that has 70 million Americans using it?" Fisher asked. "It's very curious why you just single out TikTok alone and not other companies with tens of millions of people having their own data taken, you know, in the process of engaging with those websites and equally, if not more, available to Chinese control." Democratic President Joe Biden signed the measure into law and his administration is defending it in this case. The deadline for divestiture is just one day before Republican Donald Trump, who opposes the ban, takes office as Biden's successor.
'FOREIGN ADVERSARIES'
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for the Biden administration in defending the law, said it was crucial that it take effect on Jan. 19 as scheduled in order to force ByteDance to act on divestiture.
"Foreign adversaries do not willingly give up their control over this mass communications channel in the United States," Prelogar said.
"When push comes to shove, and these restrictions take effect, I think it will fundamentally change the landscape with respect to what ByteDance is willing to consider. And it might be just the jolt that Congress expected the company would need to actually move forward with the divestiture process," Prelogar said.
If the ban takes affect on Jan. 19, Apple and Alphabet's Google would no longer be able to offer TikTok for downloads for new users but existing users could still access the app. The US government and TikTok agree that app would degrade and eventually become unusable over time because companies would not be able to offer supporting services.
The Supreme Court also debated whether the possibility of TikTok being used for covert influence campaigns or propaganda purposes by China justified the banning it.
"Look, everybody manipulates content," Francisco told the court. "There are lots of people who think CNN, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times are manipulating their content. That is core protected speech." Trump on Dec. 27 urged the court to put a hold on the Jan. 19 deadline to give his incoming administration "the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case."
Under the law, the US president has the power to extend the Jan. 19 deadline for 90 days, but under circumstances that do not appear to apply to the current situation in which ByteDance has made no apparent effort to sell TikTok's US assets. The law mandates that the president certify that significant progress has been made toward a sale, with binding legal agreements.
Regardless, Trump does not become president until after the deadline - though Francisco said "we might be in a different world" once Trump is back in the White House.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked Prelogar whether the president could "say that we're not going to enforce this law?"
"I think as a general matter, of course the president has enforcement discretion," Prelogar said.
"Again, that's one of the reasons why I think it makes perfect sense to issue a preliminary injunction here and simply buy everybody a little breathing space," Francisco said.