On June 3, 2025, TSMC held its annual shareholders meeting in Hsinchu, the first presided over by chairman C.C. Wei since he took the role. Beyond AI demand and tariffs, the question hanging over the room was the one that has unsettled Taiwan for years: as TSMC builds fabs in the United States, Japan and Germany, will its most advanced chipmaking know-how flow out with the capacity?
Wei’s answer was short: no. The reply drew applause in the hall, and the exchange became the clearest recent statement of how TSMC balances overseas expansion against technology protection.
The AGM: Wei presides for the first time
The meeting covered a wide range of shareholder questions, from green energy and AI demand to overseas expansion and geopolitical risk. For Wei, presiding over the AGM for the first time since becoming chairman in 2024, it was an exercise in defusing sharp questions with a light touch. Taiwanese coverage of the meeting noted that his composure in answering the technology-theft question drew repeated applause. The session worked both as reassurance for investors and as a direct answer to a national debate that has run since TSMC announced its larger US investment.
No: answering the technology-theft question
Asked whether building fabs in the United States risked TSMC’s technology being stolen, Wei answered with two words: “It won’t.” His explanation turned a security fear into an engineering argument. TSMC’s technology, he said, is not held by any single person; it is the accumulated work of more than ten thousand R&D engineers and thousands of production-line staff, embedded in complex, tightly systematized processes that require long periods of testing and optimization. It cannot be casually copied. He added a joke that landed well: to steal the technology, you would need to send four or five hundred people to learn it, and they would have to raise their hands and admit they were there to steal it.
Validation systems underpin the global expansion
Wei went on to describe the mechanism behind that confidence. Every new TSMC process moves from R&D into mass production only after six months to a year of validation and calibration on the production line, during which hundreds of people are trained on it. That barrier, he argued, is what makes the technology hard to imitate — and it is precisely because TSMC runs this strict technology-transfer and training system that the company can expand globally without worrying about leakage. Overseas fabs, he said, will eventually match Taiwan’s yields and mass-production standards; only costs will differ by location. In other words, overseas capacity is positioned as scale and proximity, not as a transfer of the technology frontier.
Middle East rumors denied, US-Japan-Germany unchanged
Shareholders also raised reports that TSMC was considering a fab in the United Arab Emirates. Wei knocked the rumor down himself, joking that “last time it was Intel, this time it’s the Middle East, and next I’ll probably have to answer questions about Africa.” He said TSMC’s overseas expansion plans remain focused on the United States, Japan, Germany and Singapore, and that on a Middle East investment the answer is no. Reuters reported his related comment that it was “not very likely” TSMC would have customers in the region. After weeks of repeated speculation, the company chose to settle the question with its chairman, on the record, at the AGM.
Tariffs, the Taiwan dollar and AI demand
Reuters reported that Wei told shareholders US tariffs were having “some impact, but not directly,” because tariffs are imposed on importers rather than exporters; they could, however, push prices up and damp demand. TSMC has been discussing the issue with the US Commerce Department, which said the topic was open for discussion, though with no clear timeline. Wei also reiterated that AI demand “has always been very strong” and consistently outpaces supply, and the company kept the bullish full-year outlook it issued in April on the strength of AI applications. One financial headwind: appreciation of the Taiwan dollar had cut gross margin by more than three percentage points.
What it means for the supply chain
For suppliers and product teams, the meeting confirmed a line worth writing into any risk model: TSMC keeps the R&D and mass-production center of gravity for its most advanced nodes in Taiwan and manages overseas plants through systematized technology transfer, with foreign capacity focused on scale and proximity to customers. For long-cycle procurement, cross-region capacity planning, and advanced-node adoption schedules, that “technology in Taiwan, capacity worldwide” boundary was the clearest signal to come out of the June 2025 meeting.
Sources
- Reuters: TSMC says US tariffs have some impact but AI demand robust
- SCMP: TSMC says tariffs have some impact but AI demand remains robust
- EBC: Shareholders worried about technology outflow; Wei’s firm response wins applause
AI-assisted summary compiled from the sources above, reviewed by a human before publishing.