Morris Chang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC)

Asian Tech Press (Apr. 22) -- TSMC founder said chip manufacturing costs in the U.S. are 50% more expensive than in Taiwan.

TSMC founder Morris Chang said in a podcast interview with U.S. think tank Brookings Institutionthat it is expensive, wasteful and futile for the United States to increase domestic chip production.

Chang pointed out in the interview Tuesday that the U.S. chip manufacturing industry does not have the talent pool needed to expand and succeed.

He said that Taiwan's large population is indispensable to TSMC's wafer manufacturing success.

Chang stressed that if the U.S. is to develop a successful chip manufacturing industry, it needs to address the shortage of talent.

Citing TSMC's 25 years of manufacturing experience at its Oregon facility as evidence, Chang said, "The cost of manufacturing wafers in the U.S. is 50% more expensive than in Taiwan."

Morris Chang, who left TSMC in 2018 with a naked retirement, said this time that it was not his decision to build a new factory in the United States.

He said TSMC "did so at the urging of the U.S. government."

In June last year, TSMC said it had started construction of its new $12 billion chip plant in Arizona, and the U.S. plant is expected to be completed in 2024.