Reference News Network, January 12 report: According to Taiwan's Central News Agency, on January 11, it was reported that TSMC's total investment in the U.S. is currently planned to be 165 billion U.S. dollars. U.S. Commerce Secretary Rutenberg announced that he believes TSMC will increase its investment. He also revealed that last year, the U.S. successfully prompted TSMC to add an additional 100 billion U.S. dollars for factory construction by citing violations of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) clauses.

TSMC announced in March last year that it would increase its investment in the United States by 100 billion U.S. dollars, adding to the original plan of 65 billion U.S. dollars to build three chip factories in Arizona, bringing its total investment in the U.S. to 165 billion U.S. dollars.

About a month ago, Rutenberg said in an interview that he believed the Trump administration would make TSMC's investment in setting up factories in the U.S. exceed 200 billion U.S. dollars. On the 8th, Rutenberg gave an interview, again mentioning TSMC.

Rutenberg criticized the subsidies under the Biden-era CHIPS Act, calling them unreasonable, "Why would you give TSMC 6 billion (should be 6.6 billion) U.S. dollars? Its market value is one trillion U.S. dollars."

Rutenberg said that after Trump took office, the approach was to impose 100% tariffs, which made TSMC agree to set up factories in the U.S., and the U.S. no longer needed to provide that 6 billion U.S. dollar subsidy.

He said that the Trump administration also told TSMC, "You signed a contract, and there are 20 pages involving 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' (DEI) clauses." According to the clauses, TSMC must hire blind people, transgender individuals, etc.

Rutenberg said, imagine TSMC's situation, where the majority of engineers are male, which means it has already violated the DEI clauses.

Rutenberg said that TSMC had breached the contract first, so the U.S. proposed conditions: if TSMC could increase its investment by 100 billion U.S. dollars to build factories, all DEI clauses could be waived, and both sides reached an agreement.

He also kept quiet about the subsequent investment amount of TSMC, saying, "I will let TSMC announce it themselves, their (investment) scale will be even higher than this (165 billion U.S. dollars)."

Original text: toutiao.com/article/7594358764066488859/

Statement: The article represents the views of the author himself.