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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has committed to investing an additional $100 billion in advanced manufacturing plants in the United States. However, Pat Gelsinger, who was ousted as CEO of Intel late last year, expressed skepticism about this move aiding the U.S. in regaining its global leadership in chipmaking. This comment came shortly after the White House praised TSMC’s investment as a significant step toward bringing the production of the most advanced semiconductors back to U.S. territory.
Gelsinger emphasized the importance of research and development (R&D) within the U.S., noting that TSMC’s R&D operations are based in Taiwan, with no plans announced to relocate them. Nonetheless, he acknowledged that the tariff threats from former President Donald Trump might have been beneficial by encouraging companies like TSMC to establish facilities in the U.S.
The Trump administration has relied heavily on TSMC amidst concerns about Intel’s capability to regain the global manufacturing lead it lost to TSMC a decade ago. Gelsinger’s departure from Intel was seen as the company’s rejection of his complex turnaround plan aimed at rebuilding Intel’s manufacturing base. His successor, Lip-Bu Tan, who was appointed earlier this month, has yet to unveil his strategy.
Gelsinger refrained from commenting on potential disagreements with Intel’s directors over strategy but suggested that he lost their confidence before completing his five-year plan. He stated that his tenure ended before he could finish implementing his plans.
TSMC has indicated that its U.S. development work will focus solely on process technology currently in production, while its core R&D will remain in Taiwan. Gelsinger reiterated that without designing next-generation transistor technology in the U.S., leadership in the semiconductor industry cannot be claimed domestically.
Now a partner at Playground Global, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm specializing in “deep tech” investments, Gelsinger was interviewed this week. Despite challenges in cutting-edge process technology, he believes the U.S. retains a global edge in advanced technologies crucial for future artificial intelligence leadership. He also downplayed concerns that Chinese AI company DeepSeek posed a significant threat to American firms, characterizing DeepSeek’s work as good engineering rather than core innovations.
Among Playground’s investments are xLight, whose advanced lasers could be crucial for future lithography in chip production, PsiQuantum, which is pioneering large-scale quantum computing, and d-Matrix, which is attempting to surpass Nvidia in developing AI systems chips.
While at Intel, Gelsinger struggled to compete with Nvidia in AI chips. He noted that AI remains prohibitively expensive and highlighted the need for significant cost reductions in AI inference to achieve widespread deployment.