Posted on Dec 17, 2023
The secret sauce for Taiwan's chip superstardom
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When 23-year-old Shih Chin-tay boarded a plane for the United States in the summer of 1969, he was flying to a different world.
He grew up in a fishing village surrounded by sugarcane fields. He had attended university in Taiwan's capital Taipei, then a city of dusty streets and grey apartment buildings where people rarely owned cars.
Now he was off to Princeton University. The US had just a put a man on the Moon and the Boeing 747 in the skies. Its economy was larger than those of the Soviet Union, Japan, Germany and France combined.
"When I landed, I was shocked," Dr Shih, now 77, says. "I thought to myself: Taiwan is so poor, I must do something to try and help make it better off."
And he did. Dr Shih and a group of young, ambitious engineers transformed an island that exported sugar and t-shirts into an electronics powerhouse.
He grew up in a fishing village surrounded by sugarcane fields. He had attended university in Taiwan's capital Taipei, then a city of dusty streets and grey apartment buildings where people rarely owned cars.
Now he was off to Princeton University. The US had just a put a man on the Moon and the Boeing 747 in the skies. Its economy was larger than those of the Soviet Union, Japan, Germany and France combined.
"When I landed, I was shocked," Dr Shih, now 77, says. "I thought to myself: Taiwan is so poor, I must do something to try and help make it better off."
And he did. Dr Shih and a group of young, ambitious engineers transformed an island that exported sugar and t-shirts into an electronics powerhouse.
The secret sauce for Taiwan's chip superstardom
Posted from bbc.comPosted in these groups: 
Taiwan
Taiwan
Posted 5 mo ago
Responses: 3
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel good day Brother William, always informational and of the most interesting. Thanks for sharing, have a blessed day!
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Much of the world's raw silicon comes from China, although most of it goes to the solar industry. Germany and Japan lead the charge in chemicals that are necessary to process the wafers.
Carl Zeiss, a German optoelectronics company better known for making eyewear and camera lenses, produces optical devices that go into the lithography machines made by a leading Dutch company, ASML. The laborious manufacturing works to designs that originate in American companies or the UK-based Arm.
Dr Shih is doubtful Beijing can recreate this supply chain - from materials to design to high-end production - inside China.
"If they want to create a different model then I wish them luck," he says with a shrug. "Because if you really want innovation, you need everyone to work together from all around the world. It's not one company or one country."
He is just as doubtful about cutting China out as the US has been doing.
"I think that's probably a major mistake," he says. "When I look back, I feel lucky to have witnessed the extraordinary growth of Taiwan's economy and this long period of peace. Now I see conflict in other parts of the world, and I worry it may come to Asia.
"I hope people appreciate the precious effort that we made and won't destroy it."
..."Much of the world's raw silicon comes from China, although most of it goes to the solar industry. Germany and Japan lead the charge in chemicals that are necessary to process the wafers.
Carl Zeiss, a German optoelectronics company better known for making eyewear and camera lenses, produces optical devices that go into the lithography machines made by a leading Dutch company, ASML. The laborious manufacturing works to designs that originate in American companies or the UK-based Arm.
Dr Shih is doubtful Beijing can recreate this supply chain - from materials to design to high-end production - inside China.
"If they want to create a different model then I wish them luck," he says with a shrug. "Because if you really want innovation, you need everyone to work together from all around the world. It's not one company or one country."
He is just as doubtful about cutting China out as the US has been doing.
"I think that's probably a major mistake," he says. "When I look back, I feel lucky to have witnessed the extraordinary growth of Taiwan's economy and this long period of peace. Now I see conflict in other parts of the world, and I worry it may come to Asia.
"I hope people appreciate the precious effort that we made and won't destroy it."
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This is a story of a student out of poverty who rose beyond his own imagination and in return he paid back to society selflessly changing Taiwan into an electronic powerhouse; a chip manufacturing hub from a sugar and t-shirt exporter.
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