My understanding is that 1 company in Taiwan makes the greatest chips in the world and no one else can replicate them. How is that possible?
In: Engineering
The Taiwanese government made the strategic economic and military decision that relying on other people’s inate love freedom and philosophical support for western-style democracy was all well and good, but being as indispensable to what they thought the modern global economy would be as possible was better.
As such the Taiwanese government invested *metric fucktons* of money and resources and social capital in promoting the growth of the semiconductor industry and a few other sectors.
Others *could* replicate their success, but they would have to be able to, if not match their drive and intensity, at least match (or more likely exceed) their resource expenditure in order to even have a chance at succeeding. TSMC was a very large bet for the government of Taiwan, and it took decades of investment before it really began to pay off. If you aren’t under the same sort of existential pressures that they are ,it is probably a lot more difficult to maintain that level of investment for decades before seeing results.
The US used to be the world leader in semiconductors, and it is beginning to reinvest there, but even in such historically fertile grounds and even with the resources of the US, results are not guaranteed, especially given how fractious our political process has become.
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