{"id":230798,"date":"2026-06-12T12:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/tsmc-is-in-trouble-and-its-biggest-challenge-isnt-competition-its-water\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T12:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:37:19","slug":"tsmc-is-in-trouble-and-its-biggest-challenge-isnt-competition-its-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/tsmc-is-in-trouble-and-its-biggest-challenge-isnt-competition-its-water\/","title":{"rendered":"TSMC is in Trouble, and Its Biggest Challenge Isn’t Competition: It’s Water"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Water Crisis Facing TSMC: A Growing Concern<\/h2>\n

CC Wei, the president and CEO of TSMC, made headlines during the inauguration of the Pingtung technology park in southern Taiwan, held amid intense rainfall. In a moment of levity, he publicly questioned, \u201cWhat should we do with the water? Should we start using tankers?<\/strong>\u201d This remark underscores a serious crisis that extends beyond mere competition; it\u2019s about a fundamental resource\u2014water.<\/p>\n

Water: A Scarce Resource in Taiwan<\/h3>\n

In Taiwan, water is both scarce and essential for semiconductor manufacturing. Integrated circuit production faces multiple resource shortages\u2014water, energy, labor, land, and talent\u2014but water stands out as the most critical. Lai Ching-te, the president of Taiwan, has communicated plans to connect the island’s reservoirs in an effort to alleviate this pressing issue.<\/p>\n

The Importance of Purity in Water Supply<\/h2>\n

The type of water typically found in taps or bottled forms is loaded with impurities, which makes it unsuitable for chip manufacturing. Even microscopic impurities can ruin the production of advanced semiconductors, including the latest 2nm integrated circuits from industry giants like TSMC, Intel, and Samsung.<\/p>\n

Understanding the Manufacturing Process<\/h3>\n

The manufacturing process for integrated circuits is nuanced and requires multiple cleaning stages. Each time a geometric pattern is transferred to silicon wafers, meticulous cleaning is essential. The industry standard for the necessary water purity is an electrical resistivity of 18.2 megaohms per centimeter, which represents the theoretical limit of purity.<\/p>\n

Challenges in Producing Ultrapure Water<\/h3>\n

Producing ultrapure water is no trivial task. It involves reverse osmosis, ion exchange treatments, and rigorous purification processes, including degassing and filtration through specialized membranes. This complex treatment consumes significant energy and chemicals, and a considerable amount of the processed water does not achieve the required purity level.<\/p>\n

Drought: An Existential Threat<\/h2>\n

Taiwan’s vulnerability to droughts was starkly revealed in 2021, when the region faced its most severe drought in decades. Reservoirs reached critical levels, prompting the Government to suspend agricultural irrigation to prioritize industrial supply. TSMC resorted to truckloads of emergency water, exposing the industry’s fragility to climate extremes. While TSMC reuses 85% of its water, the remaining 15% still amounts to a substantial quantity impacting their operations.<\/p>\n

The Cost of Water Scarcity in the U.S.<\/h3>\n

Paradoxically, some of the most advanced semiconductor factories in the U.S. are located in water-scarce regions, like Arizona and Texas. Both TSMC and Intel have established factories in these states, reflecting geopolitical rather than sustainability-driven planning. The reality is that as manufacturing nodes grow more advanced, their water consumption increases significantly, thus amplifying the challenge.<\/p>\n

Future Innovations and Urgent Solutions<\/h3>\n

The industry is exploring various solutions, such as advanced water recycling programs and dry cleaning systems that utilize reactive plasmas. However, these remedies do not eliminate the underlying dependency on water. As TSMC and other manufacturers strive for breakthroughs in water conservation, the urgency for sustainable solutions has never been more pressing.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, while TSMC’s technological prowess is unquestionable, its sustainability hinges on tackling the severe water crisis. Addressing this issue is not just essential for survival but vital for the future of semiconductor manufacturing worldwide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Water Crisis Facing TSMC: A Growing Concern CC Wei, the president and CEO of TSMC, made headlines during the inauguration of the Pingtung technology park in southern Taiwan, held amid intense rainfall. In a moment of levity, he publicly questioned, \u201cWhat should we do with the water? Should we start using tankers?\u201d This remark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36399],"tags":[718,7955,3380,11766,3793,36978,896],"class_list":["post-230798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-biggest","tag-challenge","tag-competition","tag-isnt","tag-trouble","tag-tsmc","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230800,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230798\/revisions\/230800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}