The authorities in Taiwan expressed perplexity over the U.S. administration's plan to acquire equity in TSMC.
According to Taiwanese media including United Daily News and China Times on the 21st, Director General Kuo Tsai-hui of the Ministry of Economic Affairs stated that he would assess the situation faced by TSMC ahead of his attendance at the Economic Committee of the Legislative Yuan the day before. He explained that the Ministry of Economic Affairs would also seek to understand the intentions of the U.S. government alongside the National Development Council (NDC), which is TSMC's largest shareholder with 6.38% equity.
Director General Kuo noted that for the U.S. government to become a shareholder in TSMC through investment, it must undergo a review by the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Investment Review Committee.
In Taiwan, concerns are growing over the possibility that TSMC may transform into a U.S. corporation amid the weakening of the 'silicon shield' based on the semiconductor industry. Liu Pei-cheng, a researcher at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER), pointed out that it is an unfair act towards private corporations for the U.S. to intervene in matters of national security without fully receiving subsidies.
Previously, Reuters reported that U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick is considering a plan for the U.S. government to receive equity from semiconductor corporations building factories in the United States under the CHIPS Act. The U.S. government has reportedly expanded its plan to obtain 10% equity in exchange for subsidies to its domestic corporation Intel, which seems to apply to TSMC in Taiwan, Micron in the United States, and Samsung Electronics in South Korea.