Chips Giant TSMC Sued Over ‘Anti-American’ Discrimination
Asthe world’s biggest chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, ramps up production in the United States, a group of more than a dozen current and former employees are suing it for alleged “anti-American” discrimination, which they claim has displaced U.S. workers in favor of Taiwanese hires.
Headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, TSMC manufactures high-performance computing chips for companies like Apple and Nvidia; It reported $10 billion in profits last quarter thanks to the recent artificial intelligence boom. In 2020, the company announced a $65 billion plan to bring three of its semiconductor “fabs” to Phoenix, Arizona, promising to create thousands of U.S. jobs in a trillion-dollar industry. TSMC is set to receive $6.6 billion in funding and $5 billion in loans to support the project through the federal CHIPS Act, which was enacted during the Biden administration and is meant to stimulate semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
However, its American expansion has been mired in controversy over its dependence on Taiwanese workers, which the company’s founder, Morris Chang, has previously attributed to “a lack of manufacturing talents” on U.S. soil. Last year, more than half of TSMC’s 2,200-person Arizona workforce hailed from Taiwan, and the tensions between U.S. and Taiwanese employees have been the focus of several reports that highlighted differences in professional norms.
