“Any living, breathing engineer has already been recruited.” The AI boom has set off a hiring frenzy, and the world is coming to Taiwan to learn how to make chips. 🎓⚡
In 1981, Taiwan’s top students had one dream: go to the US. Today, the rhyme has flipped: come to Taiwan, go to the world. In T-Flash EP1, we trace how a small island became the world’s chip school, from Morris Chang’s “Learning is local” to the KANO spirit and the “fourth-generation university.”
Explained: Taiwan has the world’s lowest fertility rate, but TSMC families had 2,331 babies last year, one in every 46 born in Taiwan. TSMC now has more than 100,000 staff, and Taiwan has a record 140,000+ international students. Lab or fab: which route is yours?
Then meet our first T-Freshman: Isabella from Las Vegas, who interned at TSMC in Arizona and in Hsinchu. TSMC English, phone lockers, bunny suits, and a culture clash over a backpack on the bed. Would she tell everyone to apply? Not quite.
Chip jobs want you. The door is open. Your move.
⏱️ Chapters
00:00 “Come, come, come to Taiwan”
00:39 The AI hiring frenzy
01:52 “Learning is local”: Morris Chang
02:08 From “Go to the US” to TSMC
04:01 COVID, AI and the global fab rush
04:30 The KANO spirit
05:12 University 4.0: the ecosystem campus
07:03 4 routes into chip jobs
09:28 Explained: TSMC’s baby boom
11:15 Explained: the lab or the fab?
12:55 T-Freshman: an American intern inside TSMC
13:45 Why she learned Mandarin
16:41 “TSMC English”
17:41 No phones in the fab
18:21 Life in a bunny suit
19:06 Jeans, tattoos and a startup vibe
20:41 Lost in translation
21:33 Should everyone apply to TSMC?
Taiwan makes it. You use it.
New T-Flash episodes every Monday & Wednesday, 18:00 Taipei time.
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