Microchips & AI: Can India take over China position as the global new manufacturing power?25/7/2022 https://www.reuters.com/technology/intel-plans-new-chip-manufacturing-site-ohio-report-2022-01-21/ "The future of warfare is expanding in the domains of information and intelligence. Conventional standard munitions can no longer meet the needs of warfare. Observation and perception of the battlefield situation are crucial." AI-enabled machines can gather intelligence, identifying intent, and monitoring operations. Chinese bases primarily act as "information hard-points" and collectively present a big "quality is quantity" threat. China believes cyber deterrence and reconnaissance should make up a single integrated effort, to achieving information (AI) superiority. Their ability to disaggregate adversary's ISR capabilities (anti-satellite or space warfare) is as important as space and nuclear deterrence. US's DoD is moving away from airborne ISR assets (vulnerable to longer ranged air-to-air missiles), and moving into using unclassified data-links to control ISR satellite constellation which tracks moving targets in real-time, for better resiliency and sustainability. It hardly matters how precise new weapons are if you lack the ISR reach to find targets. China is focusing on asymmetric and hybrid attrition warfare, not using PLA troops, but by blending Chinese confrontation with cooperation, called 'Unrestricted Warfare' (using AI-based, all-effects multi-domain military-civil power and mobile military technologies), that affect adversary's ability to make decisions and take critical actions in the early stages of conflict i.e. strategic cognitive overmatch. Cognitive agility is the intersection point of effect that brings knowledge to capability and provides decision advantage. While a war is being conducted on the battlefield, in the strategic cognitive domain, a narrative is concurrently created to control the perception of the war. Large social media platforms have become the ‘main battleground for cognitive games and the main channel to influence people’s cognition.’ On these platforms, various short videos have become the ‘first scene’ for the public to understand various major events like a conflict or war. If one is technologically able to disrupt the adversary’s ability to communicate, it is possible to effectively suppress an adversary’s narrative. Military operations have a key supporting role to live updates on social media and allow for targeted disruption of the adversary. In fast-changing conditions, an ad hoc approach don't work. You need to use the whole of government, both offensively and defensively. This requires a shift of gears from strategy as planning, to strategy as learning. Embedding this adaptive capability is the only route to a sustainable advantage. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2023/07/10/rtx-head-greg-hayes-says-us-cant-decouple-from-china-but-can-de-risk-biden-gets-it-but-some-big-companies-dont/?sh=3b8107981049 The US government's approach to China may look like it's drawn from the Cold War playbook, however, the US is not looking for a new Cold War with China. US no longer seeks 'de-coupling', but 'de-risking', which is for purely smart business; it isn't personal. While the former would have implied an end of trade, the latter involves denial of advanced microchips for AI. China's C4ISRT & Multi-Domain Precision Warfare are dynamic system of systems, and more than the sum of its connections. Even if you know their system's capabilities; you can't predict how individuals will use them. However, these systems require advanced AI algorithms and supercomputing to rapidly sift through data that informs battlefield decisions. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/mexico-overtakes-china-leading-source-goods-imported-us-107034221 The US has adopted a 'small yard and a high fence' strategy. The US microelectronics home bases for the 8 innovation hub, each receiving between $15 to $40 million for initial operations, are:
https://www.reuters.com/article/intel-europe-poland-idUSL4N38819K https://www.reuters.com/technology/berlin-sign-agreement-with-intel-after-chip-plant-talks-2023-06-19/ https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-business/intel-and-germany-sign-agreement-for-32-8-billion-chip-plant-investment/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/19/germany-intel-chip-factory-magdeburg/bbc9dd24-0eb6-11ee-8d22-5f65b2e2f6ad_story.html https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-18/intel-to-build-25-billion-plant-in-israel-s-largest-investment?leadSource=uverify%20wall The US has been trying to find a balance between treating China as an economic partner and a geopolitical rival. China has the largest number of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. These computers are necessary for developing artificial intelligence algorithms, and they can also simulate nuclear and missile tests. But they require the advanced semiconductors. US restrictions will also hamper China’s ability to use supercomputers for dual-purpose activities like space exploration, vaccine development and weather modelling. AI algorithms at the cutting edge require more and more computing power and the rest of the world moves forward and China can’t. What needs to be understood clearly is that China can still duplicate the functionality provided by Western microelectronic components. When you say an electronic component is more advanced, it implies that it is more miniaturized. Of course, equivalent Chinese components will be bulkier and heavier because Western electronic components are smaller and lighter than Chinese ones. There is a big penalty, to be paid when using heavier and bulkier electronic components. Arguably, the failure rate of Chinese electronic components would be higher than western components. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-signs-executive-order-to-implement-the-european-union-u-s-data-privacy-framework/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/07/eu-us-data-privacy-framework-executive-order-signed/ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/business/economy/biden-administration-ai-chips-china.html https://nordot.app/1044906933047919216?c=445918389795193953 https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/china-tech-chiefs-fear-falling-five-generations-behind https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/us/politics/china-iran-arrests-export-controls.html https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-microchips-migrate-from-china-to-russia-7ad9d6f4 https://fortune.com/2022/02/25/biden-ban-chip-semiconductors-exports-russia-ukraine/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-04/putin-gets-military-tech-chips-semiconductors-despite-eu-and-g-7-sanctions#xj4y7vzkg https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-crisis-russia-tech-middlemen/ https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/07/how-us-microchips-are-fueling-russias-military-despite-sanctions.html https://www.techtimes.com/articles/282224/20221019/40-semiconductor-imports-china-defective-russia.htm https://wccftech.com/russian-manufacturer-baikal-steps-into-the-ai-industry-through-ai-dedicated-asics/ The influx of foreign capital, technology, and managerial expertise has been instrumental in the growth of many industries in China; compared to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan relied more on domestic investment (strict government control of the financial system) and technology transfers through licensing agreements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fVrWDdll0g&list=PLiCaf7DuU26j_ZeylUUUaviMhHQ1EFdeo&index=10 https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/pm-modi-s-24-billion-manufacturing-push-is-stuck-on-the-assembly-line-11685667021929.html TSMC (Philips controlled 28% in 1984 until 2008) is the default option for fabricating cutting-edge digital chips, because it is the best foundry in the world. TSMC is a natural monopoly, not because of the cost associated. Fabless companies who use TSMC’s advance fabrication services get to tap into a very rich ecosystem of pre-designed IP blocks, from an entire network of different vendors. As a result, TSMC users can often license 90% (or more) of the design of their chip. TSMC makes 37% of the world’s logic chips and 11% of the world’s memory chips. Arizona will feature a new facility of the TSMC. The company’s has announced $40 billion investment in US microelectronics manufacturing following the enactment of the CHIPS Act. On top of the approximately 20,000 5-nanometer chips per month; by 2026, the TSMC would begin building the world’s most sophisticated 3-nanometer chips in the Arizona facility. Intel too said it planned to build a $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant in Ohio. Having a parallel ecosystem in the US is both a US national-security imperative, and, ironically, a great way to reduce the likelihood of an attack on Taiwan. US semiconductor production equipment heavyweights Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA participated in the 25th China IC Manufacturing Annual Conference and Supply Chain Innovation Forum by the China Semiconductor Industry Association held in Guangzhou in 2023. In addition to the three big US semiconductor companies, Germany’s Siemens and Zeiss and Japan’s Hitachi and Disco were in attendance. At the conference, Guangdong Vice Governor noted that the province imports about $145 billion worth of semiconductors each year, representing roughly a third of China’s total chip imports. Boston Consulting Group has estimated that a complete ban on US chip sales to China would cost US semiconductor firms 18% of their global market share and 37% of their revenues. At present, SK Hynix is the sole producer of DRAM in China. Manufacturers of wafer fab equipment (WFE) from the U.S. must obtain an export license from the Department of Commerce before exporting tools capable of producing logic chips with non-planar transistors on nodes measuring 10nm/14nm/16nm or smaller, 3D NAND chips featuring 128 or more layers, and DRAM ICs with a half-pitch of 18nm or less to customers in China. Both Samsung and SK Hynix fabricate 3D NAND in China using their 128-layer process. TSMC's Fab 16 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, produces chips on the company's 16nm FinFET nodes. However, at some point, they are going to become obsolete and if chipmakers there cannot invest in upgrades of their Chinese fabs in accordance with their agreements with the U.S. government. https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-allow-south-korean-taiwan-chip-makers-to-keep-operations-in-china-5d7d72cc
https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-chip-makers-a-choice-between-the-u-s-and-china-looms-5450df30?mod=hp_lead_pos7 China imported more than $350 billion worth of semiconductors in 2020, more than China’s import of oil. It has been unable to match US, Taiwan and South Korean chip-makers when it comes to more-sophisticated semiconductors for advanced applications. Applied Materials Inc. generated more than 27% of its sales from China in a quarter, or nearly $1.8 billion. China accounted for 22% of Lam Research’s sales in a quarter. The Dutch make the more sophisticated Extreme Ultraviolet (EU) machines, but these are already subject to export curbs under a pact on dual civilian-military technology. The wide-reaching implications of Moore’s law has provided a crucial technological edge over China. For China’s leadership, the turning point in shaping semiconductor strategy was in 2018, when the US imposed strict export controls against a major Chinese telecommunication company for repeatedly selling equipment to Iran, which led China’s leadership to view the semiconductor industry primarily in national security terms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQmXsbUYf9o&list=PLiCaf7DuU26j_ZeylUUUaviMhHQ1EFdeo&index=15 12-nanometer chip is good enough for most military use and for the space industry. In 2023, the US enacted a series of new export control regulations targeting certain types of advance semiconductor industries for AI applications, chip-making equipment and the diverse set of technologies needed for China to design and manufacture AI chips. China will have to break the technological barrier without expertise from US, Japanese, and Dutch firms. International chip foundries would refuse to fabricate the Chinese microchips, because these use US software and semiconductor production equipment parts. Leading Chinese firms such as Biren, YMTC (Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp), SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation), and SMEE have all been set back years. China's chip (for AI) could be strangled quickly and decisively by the US. Dutch firms would now have to apply for export licenses for its most advanced Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) lithography. However, since the US regulations target geographic destination and not corporate ownership, it remains entirely legal for Chinese AI companies to import the advance chips to their subsidiaries in Vietnam or South Korea and then allow China to access the computing capacity via the cloud, in order to avoid US controls. https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-wants-contain-chinas-chip-industry-this-startup-shows-it-wont-be-easy-2023-12-29/ China is now only about two generations (about five years) away from the cutting edge. China has bought up core electronic components, high-end general-purpose chips, and foundational software from Applied Materials, KLA Corporation and Lam Research. It has also bought every last used piece of chip manufacturing equipment from Japan. China provides financial support measures by exempting most Chinese semiconductor companies from most import duties and corporate taxes, with some exempted for 10 years. China recently developed 7-nanometer (Huawei) HiSilicon's Kirin microchips (but at higher cost than TSMC; and Huawei had used South Korean Hynix's DRAM), despite US restrictions on its access to advanced chip-making equipment. SMIC’s had been working on 7-nanometer with HiSilicon. However, Huawei doesn't mention if it can support 5G using HiSilicon's Kirin microchips. Russian chip-maker Baikal Electronics was halfway to having an SoC series that spanned from 8 cores to 48 before Russia invaded Ukraine and invited sanctions that crippled its nascent semiconductor industry. TSMC has refused to cooperate with Russian customers as a result of sanctions imposed against Russia for invading Ukraine. Such successes cannot gain commercial market traction, as there is a major gap between building a prototype and producing at competitive performance and scale. TSMC and Samsung, meanwhile, have moved to more advanced 5-nanometer and 3-nanometer processes. Currently, TSMC is producing 3-nanometer microchip for Apple iPhone with 5G connectivity. Even if China succeeds in creating advanced AI-chip firms by repurposing immersion lithography, Chinese foundries cannot fabricate the chips without advanced foreign equipment and chemicals, which are restricted. Qualcomm, which accounts for about 20% of China's SMIC’s revenue, is reportedly considering whether to drop SMIC as a supplier even for chips less advanced than those covered by the US restrictions. Computer maker Dell announced plans to cease purchases of Chinese chips by 2024. Apple has cancelled memory chips for iPhones from China. The domestic Chinese chip sales to foreign firms are likely to drop. That means China will have to achieve economies of scale only with intermediate good for finished products assembled in China. Apple relies on about 100 companies worldwide for design tools, instrumentation, IP, chips and other components, many of which come from China. (Huawei) HiSilicon's Kirin smartphone processor is now considered to be on par with those created by Apple. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/980305760/a-cautionary-tale-for-chinas-ambitious-chipmakers In the early years of chip manufacture, when most of the painstaking work was done by hand, high labour costs in the U.S. pushed producers to look overseas, first to Japan. In the 1980s, leading U.S. semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel stood on the brink of bankruptcy. American tech firms were willing to send chip manufacture offshore, so they could focus on their strengths of innovation and design. But then Japan became a major competitor. An answer was to undercut the Japanese firms by finding countries with even lower labour costs, such as South Korea and Taiwan. In many sectors, such as electric cars, China’s leadership has shown willingness to throw vast sums of money. America’s tech lead is shrinking, so the time has come to develop policies to ensure that the secret machinery of the digital era continues to operate smoothly. https://www.reuters.com/technology/south-korea-indicts-ex-samsung-elec-executive-alleged-data-leak-china-2023-06-12/ South Korea also has deep linkages to the Chinese semiconductor industry. South Korea’s two largest memory producers, Samsung and SK Hynix both have a significant share of their global memory production located in China, and both operate facilities worth tens of billions of dollars. Industry officials told CSIS that Chinese talent poaching from Samsung’s and SK Hynix’s Chinese production facilities played a major role in the rapid technological ascent of both YMTC and CXMT. In terms of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND chips, China's share in global production is 21 percent and 15 percent, respectively. The planned Samsung and SK Hynix production capacity expansion that would have been built in China is now planned for construction on Korean soil. Semiconductors alone comprise nearly 20 percent of South Korea’s total exports. South Korea is forecast to overtake China as the world’s largest buyer of semiconductor manufacturing equipment.Gregory C. Allen https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-02/china-stockpiles-chips-and-chip-making-machines-to-resist-u-s#xj4y7vzkg?leadSource=uverify%20wall Amazing Liang Mong Song help SMIC surpasses TSMC, driving China’s Tech Ambitions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKA4itpnmQM Liang Mong Song ended the history of no chips in China after returning to China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF59iusExtU The Soviets, through espionage, were successful in maintaining their semiconductor capabilities at about 2 to 3 generations (about five years) behind that of the West for almost the entirety of the Cold War. The outcome of the rivalry between the US and China could be determined by cutting-edge semiconductors. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/china-tough-target-us-spies-rcna73725 https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/11/23828874/inside-the-hunt-for-ai-chips-command-line https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65675027 Nvidia has released reduced interconnect variants of its best AI chips that can legally be exported to China. The overall performance penalty for using these chips is less than 10% which is tolerable for Chinese AI companies and security organizations. Alibaba’s cloud customers to train algorithms for tasks like chatbot dialogue and video analysis, and was built using hundreds of chips from US companies Intel and Nvidia. https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/28/nvidia-taps-china-talent-for-autonomous-driving-endeavors/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/06/nvidias-new-ai-superchip-combines-cpu-and-gpu-to-train-monster-ai-systems/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/inside-chinas-underground-market-high-end-nvidia-ai-chips-2023-06-19/ https://www.fudzilla.com/news/graphics/56958-intel-s-arc-a750-8gb-limited-edition-drops-down-to-199 https://www.reuters.com/technology/nvidia-tweaks-flagship-h100-chip-export-china-h800-2023-03-21/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2023/11/30/nvidia-sells-500000-ai-gpus-rtx-4090d-to-avoid-export-ban-for-gamers/?sh=2ef689523f56 https://www.tomshardware.com/news/us-prohibits-exports-of-nvidias-a800-and-h800-to-china-blacklists-chinese-gpu-developers https://www.techspot.com/news/100534-nvidia-stock-falls-after-us-government-restricts-export.html https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/nvidia-plans-to-release-three-new-chips-for-china/article67520150.ece https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/07/nvidia-us-china-ban-alternative/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/nvidia-delays-launch-new-china-focused-ai-chip-sources-2023-11-24/ Baidu is a Chinese web search provider and a key player in cloud AI services, also uses Nvidia chips extensively. https://www.reuters.com/technology/baidu-placed-ai-chip-order-huawei-shift-away-nvidia-sources-2023-11-07/ Alibaba revealed a powerful new cloud computing system designed for AI projects. It may also be possible for companies to train AI models using equipment outside of China. https://www.techspot.com/news/100991-nvidia-rtx-3080-ex-cryptomining-cards-turned-20gb.html https://www.wired.com/story/us-accuses-chinese-stealing-micron-trade-secrets/ https://asia.nikkei.com/cms/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Micron-to-invest-3.6bn-in-Japan-for-DRAM-chips-CEO https://www.reuters.com/article/micron-chips-japan-idCAKBN2X900D https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/21/china-bans-micron/ As a traditional 'trade warrior', Trump saw the issue as a way of gaining leverage over Chinese leader Xi Jinping. When Xi proposed a deal, Trump agreed to help keep ZTE in business. Eventually, the firm paid a hefty fine in exchange for regaining access to US suppliers. Trump patted himself on the back for winning a battle in the trade war, but in fact his decision demonstrated just how poorly he—and parts of his administration—grasped the significance of the emerging technology war. The US, under President Joe Biden, has since woken up to the magnitude of the challenge. Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine is a stark reminder of the vital role played by semiconductors. As Russia’s munitions stocks dwindled, its heavy dependence on microchip imports quickly became an Achilles’ heel.Robert Wihtol https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-looks-to-restrict-chinas-access-to-cloud-computing-to-protect-advanced-technology-f771613?mod=hp_lead_pos5
Pioneer of Indian Computer (Part 1 & 2) Sulata Sarkar https://www.thebetterindia.com/119136/the-fascinating-story-of-how-indias-first-indigenous-computers-were-built/
Located in Mohali in Punjab, the central government-owned enterprise, the Semiconductor Complex Limited (SCL), is India's only major analogue VLSI fabrication facility. It had entered into a technical collaboration with the American Microsystems Inc and commenced production of 5-micron CMOS technology in 1984. Taiwan, Israel, Korea and even China were nowhere near being the semiconductor powerhouses that they have become. However, the SCL facility got destroyed in a mysterious fire in 1989 causing heavy losses to imported equipment and facilities estimated to be worth Rs 60 crore. The SCL employee’s union panel ruled out the possibility of any external sabotage and said the fire could be the result of an accident and blamed the lack of initiative on the part of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) unit. Strongly entrenched lobby has also started and it hindered India's hardware manufacturing. "People feel happy that companies like LG, Samsung, Nokia and others are assembling products here, but less than 5% of the components are local. Let it be a 4-bit chip, that is what is put in traffic lights, and we don’t even produce that." It took another 8 years for SCL to finally get re-started in 1997, but it was hampered by its inability to retain experienced engineers. In 2006, SCL was restructured as a research & development centre within the Department of Space. It was renamed 'Semiconductor Lab'. SCL production facility is currently based on 1.8-micron CMOS technology. It is in the process of being upgraded to 1.6-micron. India wants semiconductor foundries for producing 65-nanometre & 45-nanometre microchips. There is no foundry in India making GaN components. They are all imported, mostly from Israel's Tower Semiconductor. Technology gets outdated quickly, so sooner or later, you need newer machines. Even for Apple and Google, access to the chip fabs at either TSMC or Samsung are essential to their businesses. TSMC facility in Singapore will produce 7-nanometre microchips. Without cutting-edge CPUs, and GPUs chips originally designed for gaming but also ideal for running the necessary mathematical operations, Amazon would grind to a halt.
Microchips have become so complex that there is no way to know what they contain. Unless you control the design and trust the fabrication facility, there is no way to know whether something has been inserted into the chip that creates a hardware vulnerability or a backdoor for an adversary. Regardless of what software is run on, detecting an insertion in the micro is nearly impossible. The satellite-based navigation multi-core chip, NavIC, by Elena Geo Systems, will give India a huge edge as both government and private sector can move away from their dependence on the American GPS. The advent of GPS allowed USAF to do live-training at the force-on-force tactical level. This is known as 'instrumentation' in Modelling and Simulation. https://www.strategicfront.org/indias-research-efforts-in-the-micro-controller-and-micro-processor-space-the-story-so-far/ The semiconductor world is both deeper, in terms of the tools, IPs and software needed to design, build, package and test these chips; and is also broader, in terms of the many other kinds of chips made in different materials. And then there are assets. These can be trade secrets, equipment, human capital and a corporate culture. India and China, both, need expertise in integrated circuit (IC) design and electronic design automation (EDA), materials innovation, atomic layer deposition (ALD) and other specialized processing technologies as well as central processing units (CPUs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), systems-on-chip (SOCs), power and compound semiconductors, automotive integrated circuit and sensors. https://venturebeat.com/mobile/applied-materials-buys-tokyo-electron-creating-29b-chip-equipment-maker/ https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/business/dealbook/makers-of-chip-gear-call-off-10-billion-merger.html https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-deals/Aborted-merger-was-blessing-in-disguise-for-Tokyo-Electron Developing the fabrication tech for Aluminium-Nitride-on-silicon platform (material) multi-layer detector integrated chips (carrier) for quantum processors. Silicon photonics has offered a versatile platform, however, silicon is limited to wavelengths above 1.1 μm and also does not provide the desired lowest order optical nonlinearity for interfacing with other active electrical components on a chip. On the other hand, aluminium nitride (AlN) is a wide-band semiconductor widely used in micromechanical resonators due to its low mechanical loss and high electromechanical coupling strength. Low-cost Aluminium-Nitride-on-silicon circuits are excellent substitutes for metal-oxide–semiconductor-compatible circuits for building new devices that are free from carrier effects. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-08/china-readies-27-billion-chip-fund-to-counter-growing-us-curbs By Michael Hochberg and Leonard Hochberg: Large companies that are producing a product in volume will go to the trouble to qualify multiple sources for critical parts (when they can) in order to make their supply chains more robust. You cannot have any vibration in the semiconductor fabrication facility because it can wreck the manufacturing process. But this is utterly impractical for smaller companies, and it’s an enormous logistical and technical burden to qualify multiple suppliers for more than a tiny fraction of the chips that go into any complex system. When national interests come into conflict, lean supply chains collapse, and national survival demands fat, redundant supply chains. Microchips are made in semiconductor fabrication facilities, and participate in the same ecosystem of tools, software, test equipment, chemicals, etc. While Cadence and Synopsys and Mentor Graphics all make software that does very similar things, these tools are not easily interchangeable. The same is true for IP blocks, which are completed, tested, field-proven circuits that can be included in a chip design as a pre-completed block: Switching a circuit design from one IP block to another is often a nearly complete redesign. Switching a product from one to the other could take multiple years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Any disruption to the supply of machines, spare parts, software, design IP, masks, wafers, etc from a single supplier can disrupt an entire swath of the industry, jeopardizing the viability of multiple companies. Entire industries rely on these devices – light-emitting diodes (LEDs), lasers, microelectromechanical systems for position sensing, optical detectors, fluidics for health care and diagnostics, silicon photonics, high-power analogue, high-speed and high-power-radio-frequency integrated circuits, radiation-hardened electronics etc. https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-foundry-at-the-heart-of-darpas-plan-to-let-old-fabs-beat-new-ones Intel was rescued by CEO Andrew Grove, who was driven by the realization that advanced technology depends not only on creativity and innovation but also on ultra-efficient precision manufacturing. To help the U.S. chip industry, policymakers in Washington need to start by adjusting their definition of technology to encompass advanced manufacturing, too.
Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL): Japan’s Biggest Semiconductor Equipment Maker https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/us/politics/china-cia-spy-mss.html How ASML Builds a $150 Million EUV Machine, Keeping Moore's Law Alive ASML (another spin-off of Philips with ASML International, after Sony took its global market share in the 1980s) has emerged as a monopoly, defeating Nikon and Canon, because developing and building the EUV (extreme ultraviolet) steppers that are required for advanced node manufacturing is so ruinously expensive that ASML’s big customers were forced to directly subsidize their operations. A semiconductor fabrication facility has 9 to 18 EUV chip-making machines. Demand for these machines, while large in dollar terms, is small in terms of number of machines; absent being allowed to sell them to China, there are only a handful of customers for ASML’s product. You win a war, by building newly generated capabilities and by evolving constantly, during the ongoing war. Nothing stands still. War is the time when technology develops.
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