Peter S. Goodman

And political system.

Political system that doesn't always help bring about the most fruitful outcomes.

But we got a lot of money.

We got a lot of know-how.

And if we can get it all working right, this is what we can produce.

And yet, by the time I got out to Phoenix, about three years after the groundbreaking, it was still a marker of incredible triumph.

But alongside the triumph was a sense that, wow, what a pain it's been to get this constructed and that the whole complex had become symbolic, not just of what we can achieve, but also the many ways in which American governance can get in the way of our visions.

Well, from the beginning, it's clear that Taiwan Semiconductor, this very successful company that's managed to make and run...

huge factories in Taiwan is dealing with a system that's very different than the one that it's accustomed to.

And, you know, at home in Taiwan, they're building factories in these dedicated science parks where there's one central authority.

There's one permit, one inspection, and they're done.

How nice.

How nice.

And they're separated from, you know, homeowners who may have different ideas about what they want to see, what they want to live next to.

Well, in Phoenix, they're dealing with the county...

They're dealing with the municipal government.

There are state and federal environmental regulations.

And so there are literally thousands of permits that they have to get.

Thousands, where it would have been one in Taiwan.

And this is all new to TSMC.