Geopolitics in the Age of Trump  Family, Labor, and the Global Race for Semiconductor Dominance

As the United States and China compete for technological supremacy, the re-shoring of semiconductor manufacturing has become a matter of national security. But moving a factory involves more than just transporting advanced machinery; it requires transplanting an entire social ecosystem. This lecture examines the ambitious attempt by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to replicate its high-precision production model in Arizona. Drawing on extensive interviews with engineers and their families, she reveals how the “intensive overwork” culture of East Asian manufacturing clashes with American norms of work-life balance and gender equality. She also looks at how the success of the global chip war depends not only on billions of dollars in subsidies but also on the hidden subsidy of unpaid domestic labor. By peering behind the clean-room walls of the semiconductor fab, the talk illustrates how the future of global technology is being shaped by the intimate struggles of families trying to bridge the worlds of work and home.