Riled up by global chip shortage, semiconductor manufacturers have been pushing to fill the gap that has seen industries slow down productions, from smartphones to cars. But apart from the production impediment, the chip shortage is creating a big rivalry between foremost semiconductor manufacturers as they push to increase their manufacturing capacity, aiming to dominate the market.

Against this backdrop, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has received final approval to build its most advanced chip plant yet, a day after U.S. rival Intel said it planned to seize chip industry leadership, Nikkei Asia reports.

TSMC plans to build a 2-nanometer chip facility in Hsinchu, one of Taiwan’s most important chipmaking centers.

The Environmental Review Committee, a cross government and academic environmental regulatory body, approved the plan on Wednesday. This clears the way for TSMC to start construction of the facility in early 2022, and begin installing production equipment by 2023, sources familiar with the plan told Nikkei Asia.

“Semiconductor is one of the most crucial industries to Taiwan’s economic growth,” Economics Vice Minister Lin Chuan-neng said at the environmental review committee meeting. “The government will help TSMC to achieve its environmental targets while continuing to build the advanced technologies.”

The approval comes after top U.S. chipmaker Intel — a TSMC client and competitor — said on Tuesday that it aims to produce the world’s most advanced chips by 2024 and recover the global chip crown from Asian rivals like TSMC and Samsung Electronics the following year.

Taiwan’s importance as a source of advanced semiconductors was highlighted earlier this year when car making economies including Germany, Japan and the U.S. all pressured Taiwan to increase production of automotive chips amid a global shortage.

The Taiwanese government views its chip production expertise as a strategic advantage to keeping the island that China views as a part of its territory safe from any geopolitical conflicts.

TSMC’s move to diversify some production away from Taiwan will weaken the strategic importance of the island in the long term, which makes it more crucial for Taiwan to keep the company’s most cutting-edge production technology onshore, government officials told Nikkei Asia.

“It is OK for TSMC to expand its overseas footprint, but from a geopolitical perspective it is very important for Taiwan to have TSMC building its most advanced technology [domestically],” a government source familiar with the Tsai Ing-wen administration’s thinking told Nikkei Asia. “We can’t hinder TSMC’s plans to stay ahead of the competition.”

The planned 2-nm chip plant will be located in Hsinchu’s Baoshan township and cover nearly 50 acres. It is expected to use 98,000 tons of water a day — roughly 50% of TSMC’s total daily water consumption in 2020. The chipmaker has promised to use 10% recycled water by 2025 and reach 100% reused water by 2030 at the new Baoshan facility.

TSMC missed its internal sustainability goals on water usage and waste generation last year as the world’s biggest semiconductor company ramped up output of the industry’s most advanced chips.

TSMC is constructing a 5-nm chip facility in Arizona, expanding its 28-nm capacity in Nanjing, China, and is eyeing new facilities in Japan and Germany.

The chipmaker told Nikkei Asia it was glad that the project has gained regulatory approval, and that it will maintain its commitment to green manufacturing.

The approval, which conflicts with Taiwan’s geopolitical interest, reveals how much TSMC’s chip dominance means to the government and how far it could go to help the company keep its leadership in the semiconductor industry. Recently, Intel has increased its push to wrestle semiconductor leadership off TSMC, with multibillion dollar plans to establish more factories in the US and Europe. Rattled by the moves, the Taiwanese government appears to be making the needed sacrifice to its company ahead.

While China clamps down on its edtech sector, other players outside China are hitting record numbers in the burgeoning online education industry.

Language-learning app Duolingo Inc posted a valuation of $6.5 billion after its shares rose nearly 40% in the company’s Nasdaq debut on Wednesday, a move that impressed Wall Street. Became the latest education technology startup.

Duolingo’s stock opened at $141.4 per share, surpassing its initial public offering price (IPO) of $102 per share, which crossed the top end of its target range. The stock traded some gains later in the afternoon at $130.92.

Currently, Duolingo’s largest market is the United States, which is home to 20% of its users and brings in 45% of the company’s revenue, Von Ah said.

Duolingo raised approximately $521 million in the IPO by selling approximately 5.1 million shares. About 1.4 million of those shares were sold by existing shareholders and the proceeds will not go to the company.

Earlier this week, the company raised its price target range from estimates of between $85 and $95 per share to between $95 and $100 per share.

The company was founded in 2011 by Von Ah and Severin Hacker, who met at Carnegie Mellon University. Goldman Sachs & Company and Allen & Company are the principal underwriters for the IPO.

The company’s flotation comes at a time of growing investor interest in the edtech space, after pandemic restrictions sent students and teachers from the classroom to the web.

“Being a public company will allow us to operate at a higher level and move from minor league to major league,” said Duolingo co-founder and CEO Louis von Ahn.

Von Ah said that after the IPO, the company will focus on improving its flagship app and switching more active users to paying customers. Duolingo offers courses in 40 languages ??to approximately 40 million monthly active users.

The company plans to expand further in Asia, which is its fastest growing region.

Last week, Chinese authorities ordered edtech companies operating in China to become non-profit, killing without warning, the $100 billion valued edtech industry, and inadvertently opened the way for western-based online schools to dominate Asia. Though Duolingo and other edtech companies will find it hard finding their way into China, unless they play by the non-profit rules, they will likely grab a large share of the Asian market in the stead of Chinese edtech companies.

With the pandemic yet to be contained and more people embracing online education, more edtech companies are expected to post more numbers in valuation.