TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The allegation that the opening of a wafer fab in Arizona means that Taiwan is losing its chip making know how to the United States is totally baseless, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said Saturday (Dec. 17).

The plant in Phoenix held a “tool-in” ceremony Dec. 6 in the presence of U.S. President Joe Biden. However, the launch of the new factory has led to concern that TSMC might not only be transferring semiconductor talent, but also advanced technology away from Taiwan.

The success of TSMC was built on 30 years of cooperation between the semiconductor maker and its suppliers, and cannot be replicated overseas in a short period of time, Wei told a semiconductor forum in Taipei City on Saturday. The U.S. even needed to import the sulfuric acid necessary for cleaning and etching computer chips from Taiwan because few U.S. companies used the product, he said.

Wei gave the example of sulfuric acid to show that, with enough funds, it is possible to set up a semiconductor fab, but making further progress without the right environment is difficult and time-consuming, the Liberty Times reported.

Sending experts over from one fab to another did not amount to a brain drain, the CEO said, adding that to open a factory in Tainan City, TSMC also needed to move between 500 and 600 employees from a fab in Hsinchu. Obtaining semiconductor talent was not easy, as a good engineer required eight years of training, according to Wei.