In the last decade and half I hear-read everything from the shifting narrative of the think tankers in D.C. from 5G to chips and what to do.
- Ban the chips, allow fabbing abroad and domestic.
- Let them buy the chips, allow abroad fabrication, ban the tools for domestic fabrication.
- Let them buy the chips, ban abroad fabrication, ban the tools for domestic fabrication.
- Ban the chips, ban abroad fabrication, ban the tools for domestic fabrication.
Due how expensive export controls is and has always been for US companies, the Obama administration adopted the concept of "small yard high fence" approach for export controls but this is not "the small yard high fence" that the current stooges in the White House are telling everyone or the one they hoped for.
The stakes have never been this high, is not just Huawei, this is probably forcing Chinese companies that otherwise would have not even consider the idea of investing and even getting in, not just into chip design but way deep into semiconductor manufacturing itself including in wafer processing equipment
<like my last Lenovo post>. For example the pressure for developing a high end lithography supply chain have grown to stratospheric levels, is not now just the government lab project aimed mainly for defense-aerospace production but now has become a matter of survival for a trillion dollar sector. Is pretty grim for ASML who doesn't want more competition in a pretty niche area especially if they are going to have their hands tie to their backs by Western governments.