The Fabric of Civilization

Taiwan leads the world in the production of semiconductor material, the basis of the microchips found in everything from cell phones to medical equipment. Washington and Beijing aren’t happy about it.

Illustration by Marco Miccichè.

Everywhere you go, you carry a little piece of Taiwan with you. That’s because Taiwan dominates the world in the production of integrated circuits, a type of semiconductor microchip found in many devices, from cell phones to cars to medical equipment, and countless inane “smart devices” in between. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is at […]

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