Elon Musk's Terafab comes to Taiwan to poach talent! Offering triple salaries to find 2-nanometer and CoWoS experts; TSMC's Wei Zhejia: There are no shortcuts in this industry.

Terafab is actively recruiting in Taiwan on a large scale! Tesla has announced nine major engineering positions in Taiwan, specifically calling for experience in processes below 7nm, 2nm manufacturing, and CoWoS advanced packaging. Some positions require over 10 years of experience, with annual salaries offered at NT$7-8 million, approximately 2-3 times the standard senior engineer level at TSMC. Within two weeks, over 100 resumes have poured in. TSMC Chairman and CEO Wei Zhe-Jia responded: “There are no shortcuts in the industry; building a new wafer fab takes 2-3 years.”
(Background: Intel announced joining Musk’s Terafab super chip factory project, co-building a Tera-scale AI computing power with SpaceX and Tesla.)
(Additional context: What is Terafab? Musk claims the global chip shortage demand is only 2%. How can they build a factory bigger than TSMC?)

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• 9 Positions Poaching TSMC?
• 100 Resumes Flood in Two Weeks
• Wei Zhe-Jia: No Shortcuts

Musk’s subsidiary, Terafab, is a “super vertically integrated semiconductor factory” jointly built by Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, to meet future chip manufacturing manpower needs at the Texas plant. They are officially recruiting globally.

Tesla is specifically targeting Taiwan for recruitment, with their official website listing nine major process engineer positions. The list precisely matches TSMC’s core technical strengths, covering everything from CMP to lithography, from thin films to advanced packaging, almost encompassing the entire talent demand for an advanced process.

9 Positions Poaching TSMC?

All Terafab Taiwan positions are labeled “Senior,” with a minimum requirement of 5 years of experience in advanced processes, some positions requiring over 10 years, explicitly stating experience in processes below 7nm and even 2nm. The full list is as follows:

• Senior Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) Process Engineer
• Senior Electroplating Process Engineer
• Senior Thin Film – Metal Process Engineer
• Senior Thin Film Process Engineer
• Senior Dry Etching Process Engineer
• Senior Wet Etching Process Engineer
• Senior Lithography Process Engineer
• Senior Yield and Measurement Engineer
• Senior Process Integration Engineer

One position explicitly requires familiarity with CoWoS and SoIC advanced packaging technologies, both proprietary technologies led by TSMC.

The Terafab plan covers logic chips, memory, advanced packaging, testing, and photomasks. The entire supply chain needs personnel, and TSMC is currently the only manufacturer capable of mass-producing this entire chain.

2 Weeks Flooded with Resumes

Salary is Terafab’s most direct weapon. According to reports, the Taiwan positions offer annual salaries of NT$7-8 million. Within two weeks of opening, they received over 100 resumes. In comparison, TSMC’s salary structure is:

• Starting salary for new master’s graduates in 2026: NT$8B
• Manufacturing engineer: NT$1.31-2.77 million
• Senior Hardware Engineer (levels 31-35): NT$1.63-7.23 million, with most median salaries around NT$3-4 million
• Other allowances and bonuses are additional (possibly 0.8-3 times the base salary)

Compared to TSMC’s typical senior engineer salary range of NT$3-4 million, Terafab’s NT$7-8 million is roughly 2 to 2.5 times higher; if compared to median manufacturing engineer salaries, the gap approaches nearly 3 times.

Meanwhile, Taiwan is also recruiting talent for Samsung’s HBM and 2nm processes in Korea. Many reports describe the compensation as highly attractive, prompting inquiries whether TSMC is worried about retaining core talent.

$220 Wei Zhe-Jia: No Shortcuts

TSMC Chairman and CEO Wei Zhe-Jia responded to Terafab’s headhunting: “We do not underestimate competitors, but there are no shortcuts in the industry. Building a new wafer fab takes 2-3 years.” He refers to the time needed to build the factory, but talent may move ahead of schedule.

The scale of the Terafab project is based on Musk’s blueprint announced on March 21 in Austin at the Seaholm Historic Power Plant, with an investment of $20-25 billion USD, located in Giga Texas’s North Campus, aiming for an annual output of 1 trillion AI computing power, with 80% output via orbital satellites.

Bernstein analysts estimate the full scale could reach ### trillion USD. On April 7, Intel announced joining, and currently, only TSMC, Samsung, and Intel can mass-produce below 5nm processes, so Terafab’s three companies are all recruiting aggressively.

Jin-Hua Xie commented on Intel joining Terafab: “Intel sees the tail lights.” Meanwhile, TSMC also announced plans to hire 8,000 people this year. Their first-quarter profit of NT$1.1 trillion shows they have the financial strength, but financial flexibility and salary competitiveness are two different issues.

Before robots enter chip production lines, the labor market for advanced process talent is growing. For senior engineers, the choice to stay at TSMC or move to U.S. factories depends on whether they are willing to live in America.