Got off lightly

TSMC resumed production after earthquake

Photo in front of a TSMC processor factory in Taiwan

(Bild: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.)

The Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC got off lightly after the severe earthquake in its home country. The company announced on Thursday in Hsinchu that its most important facilities had not been damaged. Production had resumed less than 24 hours after the quake.

TSMC had stopped its operations on Wednesday and brought its employees to safety. For Taiwan, the earthquake was the worst in almost 25 years. So far, nine people have been reported dead and more than a thousand injured. The search for missing persons continues.

TSMC manufactures important electronic chips, for example for iPhone manufacturer Apple and graphics card specialist Nvidia. TSMC and other companies in the country produce an estimated 80 to 90 percent of the most powerful chips for companies around the world. Severe damage to its plants would therefore also have consequences for the production of smartphones, computers or electric cars and the development of technologies based on artificial intelligence.

The industry is no stranger to such chain reactions: in 2011, devastating floods hit Thailand, flooding factories belonging to hard disk drive manufacturer Western Digital. Shortages at local suppliers also affected the manufacturers Seagate and Toshiba. As a result, hard disks became scarce and correspondingly expensive all over the world for a long time.