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A comment on TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone wants control of it.

Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by consumer451 on Friday August 18, 2023 @09:47PM (#37184628)
The Acquired podcast on TSMC should be listened to, or the transcript read.

One thing I learned is that TSMC is a sort of public/private partnership with the Taiwanese government. They put up 50% of the initial capital.

> David: 50% by the government and the other 50% were owned by the investors. Morris got nothing.

> Ben: And just got to keep his salary.

> David: He was a government employee.

> Ben: Wow.

> David: There by the grace of the government.

> Ben: Oh my God.

> David: Isn't that unbelievable? This is so the opposite of Silicon Valley.

> Ben: How is he worth $3 billion today?

> David: Well, what he did—as TSMC started to work—he basically put all of his money into buying. He bought his own shares in the company. I don't know if it was privately. They went public on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1994, and then the New York Stock Exchange in 1997. But yeah, he put basically all of his excess cash flow into buying TSMC shares.

https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/tsmc

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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by raincole on Friday August 18, 2023 @11:46PM (#37185302)
The most surprising thing was that during the late 90s, the government sold the absolute majority of its share. They really didn't think it was (going to be) an excellent cooperation.
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by bloodyplonker22 on Saturday August 19, 2023 @01:00AM (#37185670)
Come on. They were typical politicians that never really understood technology. That does not seem surprising in the least bit.
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by flangola7 on Saturday August 19, 2023 @06:52AM (#37187443)
Typical? In what sense?
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by thinking001001 on Saturday August 19, 2023 @05:00PM (#37193139)
Good point! Taiwan is a political anomaly, an accidental offshoot that came about as a result of the rise of the CCP in China (people moved to Taiwan for refuge), and Taiwan has become enormously successful in an organic, unplanned way.
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by memefrog on Saturday August 19, 2023 @03:48AM (#37186511)
It's easy to point this out in hindsight. Doesn't really surprise me.
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by consumer451 on Saturday August 19, 2023 @05:10AM (#37186946)
I wonder if maybe the ROC government saw that TSMC was doing well and no longer needed the stability that government ownership provided?
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by user_named on Saturday August 19, 2023 @12:00AM (#37185367)
Musk also made his billions off government financing
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by gantron on Saturday August 19, 2023 @12:45AM (#37185597)
How is this relevant? Subsidies are a fundamentally different model. I understand that dumping on Elon is popular now but c’mon.
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by bboygravity on Saturday August 19, 2023 @12:53AM (#37185639)
Infotainment parrots claiming that Zip2 was helped by government funds, lol.
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by mfrommil on Saturday August 19, 2023 @09:06AM (#37188377)
Thank you for suggesting this. One of the most interesting podcast episodes I've ever listened to. The background of Chang/TSMC is fascinating. Lots of lessons to be learned regardless of industry. While Chang is a technical genius, my main takeaway was that his smartest move might have been seeing the overall strategic picture / value chain of the industry and seeing the long term opportunity. A good reminder that it's always critical to deeply understand your current (or potential) customers and their needs and problems.
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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by throw0101a on Saturday August 19, 2023 @10:52AM (#37189402)
> David: Isn't that unbelievable? This is so the opposite of Silicon Valley.

Some of the most impact technological developments post-WW2 were created from government-funded research:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entrepreneurial_State

Silicon Valley was built on large government cheques being written during the Cold War:

* https://steveblank.com/secret-history/

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Re:TSMC – the world's most important company. And everyone w... by consumer451 on Tuesday August 22, 2023 @01:20PM (#37225839)
Yes, you are correct. They should have said "Silicon Valley, today" instead.
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