Tässä on Canatun heput saattaneet käydä lukemassa TSMC:n historiaa.
What makes TSMC remarkable is not simply its scale, but the way it achieved it. Unlike most technology giants, it did not become dominant by creating the best consumer products or developing a monopoly over software.
Neutraali toimija kaikille, jotka verissäpäin kilpailevat keskenään.
Instead, it positioned itself as a neutral supplier to an industry filled with fierce competitors. In effect, TSMC became the Switzerland of the semiconductor world, doing business with everyone and doing so in secrecy.
Mistä kaikki lähti.
But Chang had spent years watching another problem unfold. The industry was full of talented chip designers who could not afford to manufacture their ideas. What if somebody built the chips for them?
That simple question led to the creation of TSMC in 1987. At the time, the idea looked absurd. Bringing a chip to market required access to a fabrication plant, or “fab”. The industry believed serious companies should own these factories themselves. In practice, that meant chip designers relying on one of the industry giants.
Vanhassa tavassa toimia oli vakava ongelma. Tehdas, joka teki sirusi, oli usein myös kilpailija. Kun palkkasit heidät tekemään sirujasi, niin annoit heille vapaan pääsy IP tietoosi.
That created another problem. The company manufacturing your chip was often also a competitor. Handing over your most valuable intellectual property required a leap of faith. Chang’s solution was that TSMC would make chips for anyone willing to pay, but would never design products of its own.
Mutta jos olet vain sirujen valmistaja, etkä koskaan ala kilpailemaan suunnittelijoiden kanssa. Homma lähti käyntiin ja kilpailijoitakin tuli. Mutta heidän ongelma oli se, että he olivat myös suunnittelijoita ja laitevalmistajia.
Many tried, but almost all failed. For years, Samsung looked like the most credible challenger. The South Korean giant had deep pockets and decades of manufacturing experience. The problem was that Samsung was also a competitor. Unlike TSMC, Samsung sold smartphones and consumer electronics under its own brand. That created a dilemma for customers. Why hand your most valuable chip designs to a firm that might one day compete against you? No customer wrestled with that question more than Apple.
Apple vaihtoi Samsungin TSMC:hen, kun Samsungista tuli vakava kilpailija puhelinmarkkinoilla.
During the early years of the iPhone, Samsung made many of Apple’s processors. The arrangement worked, but it became increasingly awkward as the two companies emerged as fierce rivals in the smartphone market. By the early 2010s, they were fighting a series of patent disputes. Apple found itself in the strange position of relying on one of its biggest competitors to make some of its most important components.
Loppu on historiaa.
TSMC offered an escape route. With the launch of the A8 processor in 2014, Apple shifted production to Taiwan. The move was risky, but Apple concluded that the benefits outweighed the costs. TSMC’s neutrality had become one of the most valuable assets in the technology industry. Today, many of Silicon Valley’s biggest rivals manufacture their chips at TSMC. Apple, Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm all rely on the same company, despite competing aggressively in their own markets.
Eli on parempi valmistaa hakkuja lapioita kaikille, kuin ryhtyä itse kaivamaan. Noin proverbiaalisesti ilmaistuna. 
Veikkaan, että tämä on Canatulle hyvä ratkaisu pidemmän päälle.