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I bet TSMC has a number of bombs planted around the most critical machines, much like Switzerland has bombs planted around most critical tunnels and bridges.

Trying to grab Taiwan with force alone, even if formally successful, would mean losing its crown jewels forever.

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The bombs have been removed some years ago in Switzerland as the risk of them going off was deemed greater than the risk of sudden invasion.

Just to nitpick, your point absolutely stands

TSMC is not really that important. It’s currently only useful for the cutting edge of CPUs, and especially for mobile phones, that can get the battery boost from using a more efficient processor.

Military hardware uses CPU technology that’s 10+ years old, of which the Chinese are capable of fabricating themselves on the mainland. The stuff needs to be rugged, and likely, radiation-proofed.

And besides, isn’t it easier for Switzerland to just launch missiles at the bridges, instead of actively maintaining explosive devices on each bridge?

Maybe TSMC is not that important for making advanced weapons. It is still important for billion-dollar markets like cell phones, cloud servers, desktop and laptop computers, etc. For instance, Apple, which happens to somehow rack in money selling computing devices, is very dependent on TSMC, without a viable replacement available now.

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