Europe and the United States do not want to depend on one or two Asian countries for their semiconductor distribution. Nicholas Barre takes on the current economic problem.
The United States and Europe are furious that one or two Asian countries are no longer dependent on their semiconductor distribution.
In the past, oil was considered the most important resource for the prosperity of economies. Today it is semiconductors. They are everywhere. It is the raw material of the 21st century. And the Govt crisis has intensified Our bias on electronic chips is because this crisis is accelerating the digitalization of economies. But drugs that are mainly manufactured in Asia, such as Western countries – the United States and Europe – are waking up and realizing today how dangerous Asian countries like Daman, Korea, or China are to their semiconductors.
Suddenly, the United States wants to regain their strategic autonomy in this area.
This is very important, and Biden Management has begun auditing the supply chains of several strategic sectors, the foremost of which are electronic components. In the context of growing tensions with China, it is clear that the United States cannot be at the mercy of an Asian chip supplier for its business. Like drugs, within almost a generation, Western nations have left much of the electronics industry in Asia. In 1990, the United States produced 37% of the world’s microchips. Today, although these components are innumerable sophisticated and complex to design and manufacture, they weigh only 12%.
But is it not too late to catch up?
The US semiconductor company Intel has bet that it will not. He announced Wednesday that he will invest $ 20 billion in new factories for electronic chips. He also wants to invest in Europe because we (more than the US) depend on Asian suppliers. At least for some important components, it is important that we also achieve a certain level of technical autonomy. Chips are the fuel of advanced economies. For economic or political reasons, we cannot fully rely on suppliers who can stop us tomorrow.