Business, Financial & Legal

TSMC currently has 24 semiconductor factories under construction across Taiwan, the United States, Germany, and Japan, but the company has a shortage of fab workers that could slow things down.

In a new report from DigiTimes, we're hearing that almost all of the teams that TSMC has in Taiwan that can be mobilized, have been, and that hiring locals in Taiwan has caused issues to get worse across its global supply chain. TSMC had 83,825 employees at the end of 2025, which is a huge increase from the 51,000 staffers it employed at the end of 2019.

However, turn over of TSMC employees has reportedly been high enough that it has pushed the company to increase salaries and bonuses, with overseas operations being a challenge to figure out local work culture. Japan is very similar to Taiwan, but there aren't many workers to fill positions, while the shortage of workers in the US has made it hard for TSMC to deal with America's "work-life balance" idea.

TSMC says that it remains on track to begin high-volume production of next-gen chips on its new N2 (2nm-class) process node, the first production tech that uses gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet transistors, in the second half of this year.

The news was unveiled during TSMC's recent North American Technology Symposium 2025 event, with its new N2 node to power multiple products this year from AMD, Apple, and most recently, Intel.

TSMC's next-gen A14 process node, when compared against the upcoming N2 process, will have 15% more performance using the same power, or up to 30% power reduction at the same speed, along with over 20% more logic density. TSMC will be evolving its NanoFlex standard cell architecture to NanoFlex Pro, enabling greater performance, power efficiency, and design flexibility.

AMD has just confirmed it will host its Computex 2025 press conference on May 21, and you can tune into the show right from your PC or smartphone.

AMD's upcoming Computex 2025 press conference will be hosted by Jack Huynh, the SVP and GM of the Computing and Graphics Group of the company, who recently hosted CES 2025, where he willl be announcing key products and technology advancements across gaming, AI, PC, and enterprise, showcasing whats' possible through AMD vision on AI-powered devices.

We should expect to see things like the Radeon RX 9060 XT mainstream RDNA 4 graphics card, I'm sure a ton about how successful and powerful the company's fresh new Strix Halo APU is, an earful about AI which I'm sure we'll all be sick of within minutes of hearing "AI, AI, AI, AI, AI" over and over again.

Intel is set to announce yet another round of layoffs, with around 20% of its global workforce to see their jobs cut, representing around 21,000 positions.

In a new report from Bloomberg, we're learning that the Intel layoffs would be happening this week with the company aiming to "eliminate bureaucracy at the struggling chipmaker" according to a person familiar with the matter. The move is part of a bid to streamline management and rebuild an engineering-driven culture according to Bloomberg's source.

Intel cut around 15,000 positions in August 2024, with its global workforce dropping from 124,800 employees in 2023 to 108,900 last year... and now with another 20,000 positions slashed, Intel's global workforce will dwindle down to 88,900.

The United States and China are engaging in a tit-for-tat trade war, and currently, Chinese goods are facing a 145% additional fee when they enter the US, but the White House just confirmed that's not the total, as the tariff can reach up to 245%.

On Tuesday this week, the White House shared a fact sheet about the newly announced trade tariffs with the goal of clarifying some of the confusion around what goods are subject to tariffs and what aren't, especially after Trump announced an exemption on select Chinese goods. Officials who have spoken to The Register informed the publication that the stated 245% fee isn't an error, and was intentional. So, how did we get the 245%? It's a combination of already established tariffs and President Trump's reciprocal tariffs.

According to the White House fact sheet, fentanyl-justified tariffs and prior tariffs implemented under Section 301 of the 1974 US Trade Act, China faces a levy of 245%, which is essentially at an embargo level as it wouldn't be beneificial for a company to send its products to US due to it either having to raise prices of its goods to levels beyond what consumers are willing to pay, or eat into its own profit margins beyond what is financially sustainable.

The PC supply chain is showing some momentum in a post-tariff world from President Trump, with new data from analyst firm Canalys showing that big US-based tech companies are importing PC products in huge volumes, so much so that they're at a 4-year high.

US trade policy changes are causing headaches for many, with tech companies including Apple, Dell, HP, and many others importing PC products in mass quantities, with the shipment increased to levels beyond what we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic according to Canalys.

Q1 2025 PC shipments increased by 9.4% to 62.7 million units, with these shipments including desktops, laptops, and workstations, showing that the overall PC supply chain has been eager to dodge the new US tariffs. Wccftech points out that major tech companies have been forcing their suppliers to speed up the production process, with shipment volumes massively increasing, with the site noting that the supply chain has been successful in "front-running" the new policies.

Samsung Electronics is the first company to receive government approval to extend working hours in order to boost its semiconductor research and development (R&D) staff, with the South Korean government approving a new policy to increase the industry's semiconductor competitiveness, boosting work hours up to 64 hours per week.

In a new report from Korean media outlet Chosun, industry sources said that the Ministry of Employment and Labor's Gyeonggi branch approved the request on April 9. The new exemption allows Samsung's chip R&D staffers to work up to 64 hours per week for the first 3 months, and up to 60 hours per week for the 3 months after, exceeding the 52-hour statutory workweek that South Korea allows.

The South Korean government revised its labor rules on March 14, extending the permitted overtime for semiconductor R&D roles to 6 months per application, up from 3 months previously. South Korean companies can now seek approval for a one-time, 6-month extension under the new rules.

President Trump has just announced that the Unites States' reciprocal tariffs won't happen on smartphones, computers, and other electronics, which is a major win for US companies like Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, Intel, and more.

The exclusions will apply to smartphones, laptops, storage products, CPUs, memory chips, as well as flat-screen displays. These are some of the most popular electronics products in the world, and most of them aren't made in the US, with their innards (processor, memory, etc) made in Taiwan, South Korea, or China.

The exemptions cover nearly $390 billion worth of US imports based on US 2024 trade statistics, reports Reuters, including over $101 billion from China. President Trump just enforced 125% tariffs on goods coming from China, with the new exemptions made because President Trump wants to give these companies more time to move their production onto US soil.

The former director of Global Public Policy for Facebook has told US senators that Meta actively targets teens with advertisements based on their emotional state, with data acquired through their online activity.

Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams spoke to senators on Wednesday and said during her time at the company, Meta actively targeted teens with advertisements when they were feeling down or depressed. The claim, which was first made during Wynn-Williams' book "Careless People," documents the time she spent at Facebook and the lack of concern top executives at the company had for children using its platform.

More specifically, Wynn-Williams said Meta, then known as Facebook, targeted teens between the ages of 13 and 17 with advertisements when they were feeling "worthless or helpless".

President Trump has announced a 90-day pause on Reciprocal Tariffs for most countries, while nailing China with a 125% tariff effective immediately.

Right at the same time, stocks of the biggest companies that saw multiple trillions of dollars wiped away in market cap over the last few days, bounced right back... and better than ever. Tesla stock is at $272, up 22.69% today, while NVIDIA stock is at $114, up 18.72% today (at the time of writing).

President Trump wrote on his Truth Social post: "Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World's Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable".