According to insiders, Taiwanese vendors are moving manufacturing offshore in response to SpaceX’s requirements

Elon Musk’s SpaceX requested that Taiwanese vendors relocate elements of their supply chain, according to persons employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate records.

According to a source at one of the multiple subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet systems, SpaceX requested that their manufacturers build outside of Taiwan due to geopolitical dangers, prompting at least one to relocate manufacturing to Vietnam.

According to a second source who works with Taiwanese satellite component manufacturers on the island, SpaceX personally urged suppliers to move manufacturing outside.

Chin-Poon Industrial, a satellite component manufacturer, has requested that SpaceX relocate its production from Taiwán to Thailand for new orders, citing geopolitical concerns, according to Reuters. He did not provide any other details.

Wistron NeWeb Corporation, a Taiwanese supplier of SpaceX, began producing routers and other network equipment for Starlink this year at their factory in the northern Vietnamese province of Hanam, about an hour south of Hanoi, according to two plant employees and a contractor.

WNC’s expansion in Vietnam is due in large part to SpaceX’s requests, according to one of the employees.