| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
|
| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
| [英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替] [] |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which is manufacturing the world’s most advanced microchips, conducts business on the island of Taiwan, dead center in one of the most geopolitically volatile places on the planet. | 台积电是世界上最先进的微芯片生产商，它来自台湾，这座岛屿位于全球地缘政治最动荡地区之一的正中心。 |
| That makes people in Washington very nervous. TSMC dominates the semiconductor industry; it’s a company that the United States can’t do without, 80 miles off the coast of China. | 这令华盛顿非常紧张。台积电在半导体行业占据主导地位；这家美国离不开的公司距离中国海岸约130公里。 |
| The U.S. government has appropriated tens of billions of dollars to strengthen America’s own semiconductor sector and help fund TSMC’s nascent operations in the United States, far from China, which has never renounced the use of force to absorb Taiwan. | 美国政府已拨款数百亿美元来加强自己的半导体行业，并资助台积电赴美设厂，远离中国，后者从未放弃武力夺台的可能。 |
| But TSMC has invested billions of its own over nearly four decades growing deep roots in Taiwan. There, it employs a small army of engineers, research and development scientists, technicians and production workers in the exquisitely complex task of producing chips, etching electronic pathways smaller than a cell on plates of silicon. | 但台积电在近四十年里已投资数十亿美元在台湾深深扎根。它在台湾有一个由工程师、研发科学家、技术人员和生产工人组成的规模不大的团队，执行极其复杂的芯片生产任务——在硅板上蚀刻比细胞还小的电子通路。 |
| It would be exceedingly difficult to replicate what TSMC has built in Taiwan, said Mark Liu, chairman of TSMC. Developing and producing the company’s most cutting-edge chips at a rapid pace requires a huge effort, he said, as many as 3,000 research scientists for one generation of the technology. | 台积电董事长刘德音表示，要复制台积电在台湾所做的一切是极其困难的。他表示，快速开发和生产公司最尖端的芯片需要付出巨大的努力，开发一代技术需要多达3000名研究科学家。 |
| “We cannot put it anyplace else,” he said. | “我们无法把它移到其他地方，”他说。 |
| TSMC has embarked on a global expansion, with two factories under construction in the United States and one in Japan, as well as a possible facility in Germany. It’s part of the company’s strategy to address the calls by U.S. officials to reduce America’s reliance on chips made in Taiwan. | 台积电已开始全球扩张，目前在美国有两座工厂在建，日本有一座，可能在德国也会有一座。美国官员呼吁减少美国对台湾制造芯片的依赖，全球扩张是该公司应对这一呼吁的战略之一。 |
| That makes the 68-year-old Mr. Liu, who holds a doctoral degree in electronic engineering and computer science, as much a diplomat as a scientist and an executive. He joined TSMC 30 years ago after stints at Intel and Bell Labs, rose through the ranks and today runs the $500 billion company with its chief executive and vice chairman, C.C. Wei. | 这使得68岁、拥有电子工程和计算机科学博士学位的刘德音同时承担科学家、管理者和外交家的角色。他曾在英特尔和贝尔实验室任职，30年前加入台积电，并不断晋升，如今与总裁兼副董事长魏哲家一起管理着这家价值5000亿美元的公司。 |
| In late June, when he spoke to The New York Times at TSMC’s offices in the northern Taiwan city of Hsinchu, he had just returned from a trip to the United States, which he said he visits roughly every three months. | 6月底，他在台积电位于台湾北部城市新竹的办公室接受《纽约时报》采访，当时他刚刚从美国出差回来，他说他大约每三个月去一次美国。 |
| “We have a pretty good relationship across Congress, the Commerce Department, the White House. I think they know us,” he said. | “我们在国会、商务部和白宫都有非常好的关系。我认为他们了解我们，”他说。 |
| It’s a bit of an understatement. Initial efforts to court TSMC and bring its production facilities to the United States led to the creation of the CHIPS and Science Act, a program to expand the U.S. semiconductor industry. So complete is TSMC’s lead in the industry that there is no obvious second option for all it does. Any clash over Taiwan — where the vast majority of its manufacturing happens — would stop the flow of the TSMC microchips, putting a deep freeze on the technology industry and, in turn, the global economy. | 这有点轻描淡写了。最初，美国努力争取台积电赴美设厂，制定了《芯片和科学法案》，这是一个旨在扩大美国半导体产业的计划。台积电在行业占据完全领先地位，以至于它所做的一切都没有明显的替代之选。它的生产主要放在台湾，任何围绕台湾的冲突都将中断台积电微芯片的流通，从而使科技行业陷入深度冻结，进而影响全球经济。 |
| As befits a company obsessed with protecting its hard-won technological lead, TSMC’s offices feel more like a secret government research facility than a Silicon Valley campus. | 作为一家极力保护来之不易的技术领先地位的公司，台积电的办公室感觉不像硅谷园区，更像是一个秘密的政府研究设施。 |
| Next to turnstiles where workers swipe their badges, a sign notes that five people have been fired since 2010 for breaking the company’s strict internal security rules. One offense included improperly changing the subject line of an email in a reply. Outside phones are banned. Although policies have recently loosened up, employees tell stories of eating lunch in the parking lot so they can access their personal phones. | 在工作人员刷卡的十字转门旁边，有一个告示牌写着，自2010年以来，有五名员工因违反公司严格的内部安全规定被解雇。其中一项违规行为包括在回复中不当更改电子邮件的主题行。外部电话被禁止使用。尽管政策最近有所松动，但有员工说他们在停车场吃午餐，这样就可以使用自己的个人电话。 |
| Windowless buildings the size of aircraft hangars operate 24 hours a day to produce microchips, the tiny brains inside smartphones, airplanes, supercomputers and just about anything else electronic. | 飞机库大小的无窗建筑每天24小时运转生产微芯片，也就是智能手机、飞机、超级计算机和几乎所有电子产品中的微型大脑。 |
| Political leaders in the United States and its allies in trade battles with China have pushed TSMC to build production facilities outside Taiwan. And China has tried hard to compete with TSMC, using everything from hacks and intellectual property theft to hundreds of billions of dollars in investment. | 在与中国的贸易战中，美国及其盟友的政治领导人敦促台积电在台湾以外建立生产设施。中国一直在努力与台积电竞争，从黑客攻击到知识产权盗窃，乃至数千亿美元的投资，用尽各种手段。 |
| As the United States has sought to hinder China’s advances in semiconductor technology, TSMC has been caught in the middle. In 2020, TSMC cut off orders to the Chinese tech powerhouse Huawei, which was TSMC’s second-largest customer at the time. Mr. Liu said TSMC, because it is reliant on American technology, had no choice. | 随着美国试图阻碍中国在半导体技术方面的进步，台积电左右为难。2020年，台积电切断了对中国科技巨头华为的订单，华为当时是台积电的第二大客户。刘德音表示，由于依赖美国技术，台积电别无选择。 |
| “It’s understandable, but support or not, we have no say,” he said. | “这是可以理解的，但支持与否，我们没有发言权，”他说。 |
| Mr. Liu rejected the idea of the “silicon shield”: that Taiwan’s chip-making prowess deters military action by China and brings support from the United States. Both need Taiwan’s chips. | 刘德音不认同“硅盾”的观点，即台湾的芯片制造能力可以阻止中国的军事行动，并带来美国的支持。两国都需要台湾的芯片。 |
| “China will not invade Taiwan because of semiconductors. China will not not invade Taiwan because of semiconductors,” he said. “It is really up to the U.S. and China: How do they maintain the status quo, which both sides want?” | “中国不会因为半导体而入侵台湾。中国也不会因为半导体而不入侵台湾，”他说。“这其实取决于美国和中国：它们如何维持双方都想要的现状？” |
| TSMC has made a $40 billion investment in Arizona to build two factories to produce chips that are one or two generations behind its most advanced ones. The company is expected to submit its application for CHIPS Act subsidies this month, Mr. Liu said. | 台积电已在亚利桑那州投资400亿美元建设两家工厂，生产比其最先进的芯片落后一两代的产品。刘德音说，公司预计将于本月提交CHIPS法案补贴申请。 |
| The Arizona plants have been slow going, and the company has deployed hundreds of Taiwanese technicians to expedite the process. Last month it pushed back the expected start date by a year to 2025, and it has faced high costs and managerial challenges. Internal tensions over cultural differences have surfaced between TSMC and American workers. | 亚利桑那州的工厂进展缓慢，公司已经部署了数百名台湾技术人员来加快这一进程。上个月，公司将预期的启动日期推迟至2025年，比原定时间晚一年。而且它还面临着高昂的成本和管理挑战。台积电与美国工人之间因文化差异而产生的内部紧张关系也浮出水面。 |
| And doubts loom over whether American companies will be willing to pay the likely premium required for chips made in Arizona, where TSMC’s construction costs alone could be at least four times higher than they are in Taiwan. Mr. Liu said he had told the U.S. government that it needed to offer American companies incentives, beyond the $52 billion in subsidies in the CHIPS Act, to buy American-made chips. | 此外，美国公司是否愿意为亚利桑那州制造的芯片支付可能的溢价也是一个疑问，仅台积电在亚利桑那州的建造成本就可能比在台湾的成本高出至少四倍。刘德音说，他告诉美国政府，除了CHIPS法案规定的520亿美元补贴之外，美国政府还需要向美国公司提供购买美国制造芯片的激励措施。 |
| “Otherwise, it will be limited,” he said. “It will come to limits pretty quickly. So that is on the table. But I don’t think we have a solution yet.” The Commerce Department, in charge of handling CHIPS Act incentives, declined to comment on specific companies. | “否则，这将是有限的，”他说。“它很快就会达到极限。所以，这已经摆在桌面上了。但我认为我们还没有解决办法。”负责处理CHIPS法案激励措施的商务部拒绝就具体公司置评。 |
| In 2018, Mr. Liu said, the Commerce Department under President Donald J. Trump urged the company to invest in the United States. And several TSMC clients privately approached Mr. Liu at an industry conference and expressed the need for it to establish a U.S. manufacturing presence. Mr. Liu sensed the landscape was shifting. | 刘德音称，2018年，特朗普总统领导下的商务部敦促台积电在美国投资。在一次行业会议上，该公司的几位客户私下联系了刘德音，表示台积电有必要在美国建立生产基地。刘德音感觉到形势正在发生变化。 |
| “I thought maybe it’s time for TSMC to go a little bit global, because I know our technology is leading today, but what about in the future?” he said. | “我想，也许是时候让台积电走向全球了了，因为我知道我们的技术目前处于领先地位，但未来呢？”他说。 |
| Before long, the Trump administration’s State Department, citing national security grounds, started courting TSMC, emphasizing the role of advanced chips in military gear like F-35 fighter jets. Keith Krach, under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, arranged a phone call between Mr. Liu, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. | 不久之后，特朗普政府的国务院以国家安全为由，开始向台积电示好，强调先进芯片在F-35战斗机等军事装备中的作用。负责经济增长、能源和环境事务的副国务卿基思·克拉奇安排了刘德音、国务卿迈克·庞皮欧和商务部长威尔伯·罗斯之间的一次通话。 |
| Mr. Liu recalled that Mr. Krach said TSMC was needed to help “catalyze” the American semiconductor industry. | 刘德音回忆，克拉奇表示，台积电需要帮助“催化”美国半导体产业。 |
| “That for me is also important because the U.S. is where 65 percent of our customers reside,” Mr. Liu said. “They have different needs, and we also have opportunities.” | “这对我来说也很重要，因为我们65%的客户在美国，”刘德音说。“他们有不同的需求，我们也有了机会。” |
OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们