They’re designed in France but made in Taiwan as well, which makes it kinda shitty for it’s intended military purposes. If wars break out it’s kinda hard to get shipments from Taiwan to Europe considering the distance.
I don’t understand why no country in Europe has built some kind of chip manufacturing capabilities at least for military and governmental purposes. There’s plenty of locations that would be excellent for it, and university is pretty accessable in general in the EU as well.
Nobody apart from TSMC can replicate the manufacturing process for recent nodes. Anything sub-7nm, you need to use TSMC.
So whilst somebody could build a silicon fabrication plant in Europe, it would be out-of-date before the first shovel hit the ground.
With military/factory tech it doesn’t always have to be cutting edge chips tho. 7nm isn’t the most cutting edge either. There’s manufactories out there still running on x64 silicon using windows XP that aren’t connected to the internet, but it still works with their old factory hardware so they keep using it.
Just from a security perspective, it doesn’t make sense the EU doesn’t really produce that type of tech locally, especially since the Dutch ASML is the only one of it’s kind in the first place - half the hardware requirements are already here. The educational resources required to train such a workforce are there. The location and money are there.
If war did break out with say like the USA, EU is just automatically cut off, as Taiwan would probably side with USA to keep China off them since there’s not even a significant EU military presence there either. If Russia decides on doing a desperate full salvo, the logistics are cut off too.
For consumer electronics, scientific instrumentation etc sure, relying on Taiwan would still make sense. But for infrastructure and defense, it’s just stupid to have critical supplies be nearly halfway around the world.
Silicon chips is a very globalised industry. The design software is USA/European. The lithographics and optics is European. The fabs and packaging is east Asia and a small amount in USA.
Any two, and you can probably continue at somewhere behind the bleeding edge. If one area tries to do everything by themselves I think they’d currently fail.
That’s my point, those chips don’t have to be bleeding edge
And nobody can build something up to date without the Dutch ASML.
True but the process is more than just that one part.
Europe should defend Taiwan. Enough of this selfish euro mentality.
You can do both. It is very dangerous to rely on military material half a planet away in times of possible war. Plus, Europe produces the equipment that is used to produce chips, so why not making them?
Politicians have been shown to be spineless, they don’t do enough for Ukraine, the chip manufacturing is Taiwan’s nuclear weapons. It’s what keeps the world caring about them.
It’s not about moving all chip manufacturing to Europe, just defense kind. Even for the sake of allies it would simply be a wise move to do so, as defending Taiwan would be easier if critical military tech wasn’t blockaded should a war break out.
TSMC is still the best for producing the most advanced chips, but most military tech doesn’t need that level. Consumer tech would still make sense to produce there.
PS: just occurred to me you’re also literally on a community called “buyeuropean”
Being selfish is not a value I support.
Taiwan is an independent country hugely dependent on the US and as said, far away. I wouldn’t count on them when shit hits the fan.
Yet democracies should be defended all across the globe. You’re right to doubt cowardly Trump.
Absolutely. Also international law should be defended. Another problem with Taiwan is that it’s status isn’t that clear.
Hasn’t stopped Taipei from recognizing Israel though….
Any chance for an archive link? Only cookie options are to basically agree to data processing + reject garbage or subscribe…sounds like soft paywall to me.
The post has been updated with the link.
Thanks!
