Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s No. 1 foundry (semiconductor consignment production), fell sharply on the 11th. This is due to the fact that the U.S. took a direct hit from restrictions on semiconductor exports to China, and concerns regarding geopolitical tensions between Taiwan and China grew.
On the Taiwanese stock market on the 11th, TSMC stock closed at 401.50 Taiwan dollars, down 36.5 (-8.33%) from the previous trading day. According to Bloomberg News, it is the biggest drop since listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The Taiwanese stock index, the benchmark index of the Taiwan stock market, also closed at 13,106.03, down 4.35% as the major shareholder, TSMC, collapsed.
On the 7th, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced export control measures that effectively ban the sale of U.S.-made high-tech semiconductor equipment to Chinese companies and governments. Measures to restrict the export of high-tech semiconductors used in artificial intelligence (AI) and supercomputers were also included. The Taiwanese stock market was on the 10th as a holiday, and the 11th was the first stock market opening day since the US export restrictions were announced.
On that day, global semiconductor stocks all fell in the followingmath of the US export restrictions to China. Bloomberg announced on the same day that a total of more than $240 billion (regarding 344 trillion won) has disappeared from the global semiconductor industry’s market capitalization. However, few companies have seen such a decline as TSMC. Semiconductors Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which produce memory semiconductors in China, fell 1.4% and 1.1%, respectively. Tokyo Electronics in Japan fell 5.49%. Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML also fell 2.85%. US companies Micron (-2.89), AMD (-1.1%), and Intel (2.02%) also did not see significant declines.
The reason why TSMC’s decline was relatively large is analyzed that geopolitical tensions with China had an impact. TSMC founder Zhongmou Zhang, who appeared on the US CBS current affairs program ’60 Minutes’ on the 9th, said, “If there is a war (between China and Taiwan), all TSMC will be destroyed.”
By Noh Yoo-jeong, staff reporter yjroh@hankyung.com