The Netherlands don’t actually fab cutting edge chips themselves, they just make the lithography machines that everyone who *does* make those chips use to do so.
And yes, those older tech chips are needed, but we are entering an era where both consumer and military applications *need* those cutting or bleeding edge chips. There are a lot of things like self-flying drones that literally cannot work without advanced chips as the power consumption or heat generation is too high, or the performance you get when you meet the first two is just too low.
A secure and complete supply chain for computer chip production is every bit as important to national security today as having a steel industry was in WW2. And we have a bunch of people here on FR and in the government who just do not understand that and haven’t understood it for decades.
I remember when Japan thought it wanted to get in the supercomputer business, when the country was in its ascendancy in the 1980s. A big government program threw a lot of resources at a big program, and the technology leapfrogged before they came out with the first product.
I just got laid off from one of those non-cutting edge companies I had mentioned earlier (and make no mistake: EVs, drones, and missile systems use our non-cutting-edge chips. Programming is as important as small size and low-energy use.) I was not up on design or manufacturing, so I do not pretend to be up on the entire industry.
Other than clearing the field of regulations, and maybe tax incentives at the state and local levels to encourage new plants (e.g. tsmc), and tariffs to encourage locating HERE, I do not know what we CAN do. I do not believe the political will is there to do it all despite the president’s efforts, especially if we are going to try to be cutting-edge in general AI as well, which tends to suck the oxygen out of the room of EVERYTHING.
TSMC is developing a fabrication facility in Phoenix. (Pretty certain that in the event of invasion the Taiwanese facilities would destroyed to prevent their takeover.) I heard that they were having problems with Staffing. Differences in management style. Helium is required for some semiconductor clean room processes, and they are closer to U.S. sources of helium.
A bit of a slide. There is a U.S. semiconductor materials company in Denver that does not require rare earths or other exotic materials. Its electro-optical polymer product can be incorporated without retooling Semiconductor fabrication facilities (except for a final encapsulation step) and has the ability to reduce Data Center power usage and cooling costs. Current focus is on Data Centers, but they anticipate other uses in general electronics, aviation, and Areospace.
While they are a Tech R&D, they have agreements with Semiconductor Manufacturing companies and is moving from phase 3 development to Stage 4. (The tech works, need to move from final development into actual production.)
https://www.lightwavelogic.com
Lightwave Logic, Inc. (Nasdaq: LWLG) is a technology platform company, leveraging its proprietary technology to develop next-generation Electro-Optic – “EO” – polymers which increase the efficiency of internet infrastructure by allowing more data to be transmitted at significantly higher speeds and with less power than existing solutions."
https://tradertimes.com/lists-and-rankings/pivotal-points-en/pivotal-point-tracking-lightwave-logic-lwlg-efficiency-turbo-for-nvidi-68079.html
>>> “ Lightwave Logic is advancing efficiency in data centers with its patented "Perkinamines" platform. On March 12, a positive progress report on commercial licensing agreements and the confirmation of scalability for 800G and 1.6T data transmission triggered a surge in stock prices. The company develops organic polymers that convert electrical signals into light pulses significantly faster and with much lower energy consumption than conventional solutions. As demand for bandwidth in the AI sector explodes, the technology is now coming into focus for mass production.
The company is massively benefiting from the extensive expansion of AI infrastructure by hyperscalers like Microsoft and Nvidia. As traditional semiconductor materials reach physical limits at extremely high transmission rates, Lightwave Logic offers a cost-effective retrofitting solution for existing silicon photonic platforms. The polymers enable a drastic reduction in operating costs in server farms through lower power requirements and reduced heat generation. With the transition from research to commercialization, Lightwave is addressing a multi-billion-dollar market for optical transceivers. “