Episode 37: Why the U.S. Still Can’t Replicate Taiwan’s Semiconductor Ecosystem

In this episode of Taiwan Tech Dispatch, White Hsu examines one of the most important geopolitical and industrial questions of our time: Can the United States truly rebuild what Taiwan spent thirty years constructing? As Washington intensifies its reshoring policies under President Trump’s renewed administration, semiconductor manufacturing has become central to national security strategy, industrial policy, and global supply chain negotiations. While the U.S. can relocate certain chip production capacity, replicating Taiwan’s dense semiconductor ecosystem is an entirely different challenge. In this episode, we explore: • Why Taiwan’s chip dominance has drawn renewed U.S. political attention • The structural limits of reshoring advanced semiconductor production • The workforce and tacit knowledge gap • Why geographic clustering matters more than subsidies • What production can realistically move — and what cannot • The emerging dual-hub future of the global semiconductor industry https://whitehsu.blog/2025/11/17/taiwan-chips-us-pressure-limits/ If you enjoy strategic deep dives into Taiwan’s technology economy and global geopolitics, follow Taiwan Tech Dispatch on your preferred podcast platform, and subscribe to the newsletter for long-form analysis. https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/taiwan-tech-dispatch-7355532535025586178 -- Hosting provided by SoundOn