Why technology will always trump politics: just look at the semiconductor industry
The semiconductor industry has always been particularly complex. To begin with, the designs for its products, chips, are not the work of the companies that either manufacture them or even manufacture the machines the make them, or the ones that test and assemble them.
In addition, this is a sector with few players and advanced and rapidly evolving technology with strong links to the military because chips are used in sophisticated weaponry, and therefore is subject to the impact of strategic alliances and blockades, creating further complexities. In short, this is not an industry for the faint-hearted.
I have already written about ASML, the Dutch company that manufactures the highly specialized extreme photolithography machines that make the most advanced chips. ASML’s machines are huge, cost more than $150 million and require some 40 containers, 20 trucks and three Boeing 747s to transport them, and are essential to make the leap to five nanometer or less chips. Which is why Washington, waging a trade war against China, has been pressuring the company for some time not to sell them there.
However, things aren’t that simple: since creating a supply chain capable of replicating such ultra-complex machines is almost impossible, because it involves…
