The world's top chipmakers can flip a 'kill switch' should China invade Taiwan, Bloomberg reports

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Business Insider

May 23, 2024, 2:22 AM EDT


Two of the world's most important chip companies can flip a "kill switch" remotely on their most advanced chipmaking machines should China invade Taiwan, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Netherlands's ASML — Europe's top tech company by market value — supplies advanced machines to chip-making companies. They include Taiwan's TSMC, which produces, by some estimates, 90% of the world's most advanced processor chips.

The news of a forced shutdown, or a "kill switch," on ASML's chip-making gear comes amid intensifying rivalry between Washington and Beijing and mounting concerns over a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.

Taiwan is the world's epicenter for semiconductor chips, the ubiquitous parts that are used in products from data centers to smartphones. A war in the region would have major consequences for the global economy.

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/asml-tsmc-semiconductor-chip-equipment-kill-switch-china-invade-taiwan-2024-5

[ratchiweenie]

1. I find this very disturbing. It means they can shut us all down too if they choose.

[Mister Ed]

3. As I read it, the kill switch would shut down the chip-manufacturing machines...

...rather than deactivating chips themselves.

The object, I guess, would be to keep the invading CCP from using the manufacturing facilities that the seize.

[GB_RN]

9. This.

This is it, exactly. TSMC nor anyone in the West wants the CCP getting their hands on that kind of semiconductor technology. Or at least control over that much of it.

So it’s an international security issue. And advertising that it’s there tells the CCP that invasion won’t do much for them.

I mean, let’s face it, besides the tech industry in Taiwan, what else is there that could possibly be worth sending troop transports across 90 miles of open ocean, subject to submarine torpedo attacks, anti-ship missiles, and well entrenched shore defenses? Never mind the international military responses due to security agreements. Not much.

[Raven123]

2. Not sure I understand the reason for making this public

[BumRushDaShow]

5. It sounds more like a deterrant thing

The Bloomberg article has this -

ASML and TSMC Can Disable Chip Machines If China Invades Taiwan

By Diederik Baazil, Cagan Koc, and Jordan Robertson

May 21, 2024 at 3:26 AM EDT
Updated on May 21, 2024 at 6:43 AM EDT


ASML Holding NV and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have ways to disable the world’s most sophisticated chipmaking machines in the event that China invades Taiwan, according to people familiar with the matter.

Officials from the US government have privately expressed concerns to both their Dutch and Taiwanese counterparts about what happens if Chinese aggression escalates into an attack on the island responsible for producing the vast majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors, two of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

ASML reassured officials about its ability to remotely disable the machines when the Dutch government met with the company on the threat, two others said. The Netherlands has run simulations on a possible invasion in order to better assess the risks, they added. Spokespeople for ASML, TSMC and the Dutch trade ministry declined to comment. Spokespeople for the White House National Security Council, US Department of Defense and US Department of Commerce didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.

The remote shut-off applies to Netherlands-based ASML’s line of extreme ultraviolet machines, known within the industry as EUVs, for which TSMC is its single biggest client. EUVs harness high-frequency light waves to print the smallest microchip transistors in existence — creating chips that have artificial-intelligence uses as well as more sensitive military applications.

(snip)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-21/asml-tsmc-can-disable-chip-machines-if-china-invades-taiwan

They are almost a single point of failure (like the Russian gas & oil was for Europe), so that was probably part of the impetus behind the CHIPS and Science Act to get some of that chip manufacturing in-sourced here in the U.S.

[Arne]

4. The so called Kill Switch could be the new form of warfare.

Microcontrolers are everywhere and older ones are vulnerable.

[patphil]

6. Computer chips are ubiquitous, and are vital to a nation's survival.

We really need to have everything involved with the chip making process designed and built in the USA. It's just common sense that we have complete control of that process "in house".
Relying on a small, vulnerable nation like Taiwan for 90% of this most necessary item is very risky.

[GB_RN]

10. That's Why Both TSMC and Intel...

Have both taken advantage of the CHIPS Act and are building new fabrication plants here in the US. TSMC’s will be in Arizona and Intel’s will be in Ohio (IIRC).

[ToxMarz]

11. TSMC also just opened a new plant in Japan with a second one in the works

I think they realize they need more diversity in their production should, for example, China get aggressive.

[patphil]

12. Yes, a great start thanks to the Biden CHIPS act.

[amerikat]

7. It would take a few months to get it back online.

I worked in a chip fab. There is a very complex system used to maintain the high vacuum environment required to make the chips(wafers). Vacuum pumps don't like to be turned off, they need to be brought down slowly or they may not restart. Vac pumps cost between $30K and $100K.

[Ref]

14. I would think longer

I'm a systems engineer for a semiconductor capital equipment maker (not ASML, but in that general space). If the intent of the kill switch is to prevent their tech from being used by a hostile foreign government in the event of an invasion I doubt they're just doing an uncontrolled power down. That's far too easy to recover from.

I would be reformatting hard drives, wiping the system control software and firmware, etc... at that point they either manage to steal the SW from somewhere to reinstall everything or they're spending years trying to reverse engineer it to get those tools operational.

[amerikat]

16. We had a power outage where I worked.

We had about 30 Edwards Vac pumps that couldn't be restarted. Took about 3 weeks to replace them. We didn't have some in stock, so it took some time to get them delivered. Not sure how long it took to get everything back to normal. I mostly worked on abatement systems.

[jmowreader]

20. I was thinking more like a full year

The doping systems will get clogged if they're just instantly shut down and it'll take a hell of a long time to bring them back up.

[IronLionZion]

8. China would imprison and torture whoever they need to get it working again

but it should slow them down for some time at least.

Simulations have shown that China is capable of taking Taiwan but it would be at a very high cost. Kind of like Russia invading Ukraine. It won't be easy.

[Submariner]

13. The CCP could kill you all in due time

Someday a chip will be developed that allows a spy satellite to find, lock-on, and track military submarines nuclear reactor glow at 1,000 ft+.

If the CCP/Russia develop this technology first, they can essentially sink all our missile boat and fast attack subs by announcing they have attack submarines behind EVERY deployed U.S. nuclear sub with very high explosive fish in the tubes ready for release, and if you do not surrender now, the 1.5 billion strong CCP will wipe out entire government with the many submarines they are currently rushing to build to prepare to take us on.

[Shipwack]

15. Fellow bubblehead here, I don't really see this happening.

Even if this technology was developed and worked, nothing would prevent us from sending our own fast attacks to shadow the enemy fast attacks.

Plus, this entire scenario is why we have the nuclear triad in the first place. If all our nuke launching boats are disabled, we still have our silos in the Midwest and the bombers.

[pecosbob]

17. We expect full sensor transparency of the seas by 2050.

No more hiding. The primary focus will be toward autonomous submersibles.

[Submariner]

19. Coming from the diesel boat era

working with tubes instead of transistors, I wasn’t envisioning the no more hiding scenario, which makes sense as the next sea change, as long as we maintain the edge.

[pecosbob]

22. I was on a Knox-class frigate that chased you guys in the seventies.

You guy had the edge for a long while...not for much longer.

[jgmiller]

18. I was actually thinking about this last week

Regardless of a remote kill switch in case of invasion I'm sure we (the US) have a bigger version of a kill switch already in the war plan. It's not like the TSMC buildings are hardened military facilities. Assuming Taiwan is lost to mainland China it would be pretty easy to send in some cruise missiles and/or bombs and just demolish them.

[oasis]

21. Let the chips fall where they may?

Let Red China FAFO

[XorXor]

23. Hopefully China will not fuck around.

Nothing good would come from Chinese imperialistic war mongering. While not so much an issue here on DU, it's a shame that so many so-called anti-war/anti-imperialists don't seem to care what China does.