Comment by throwaway0a5e

True, but the people allocating compensation at TSMC say a few dozen steps away from the western money (which itself is at a disadvantage compared to an authoritarian regime when it comes to allocating large sums of money to arbitrary things) whereas the hiring manger for the other guys is only a couple layers of the org chart below someone who can personally direct the CCP money fire-hose. It's not like TSMC can just raise prices overnight to cover the expense. They'd have to get the money through some back-channel. Getting "state aid" from other states like that is something that is ridiculously tricky to pull off politically. TSMC is definitely at a disadvantage here.