Europe Is Trying to Reclaim Its Lost Chipmaking Glory
Around 2004 I visited the chipmaking industry in Dresden on a university field trip. We went to AMD and to AMTC (Advanced Mask Technology Center). It looked like they were doing pretty well, they were increasing production capacity and also doing research, and AMD and others were investing a lot of money. I think now the whole campus belongs to Globalfoundaries.<p>It is really sad how the domestic&#x2F;western production became irrelevant. We lost it just like we lost our lead in solar energy (which was also based in the Dresden area by the way). And (at least solar) in my opinion for completely stupid reasons. The supposedly business-friendly German government went <i>yolo, free trade</i> and slashed the subsidies. And now they are turning around and trying to create industries from nothing? For solar, the ship has sailed, and for chips I think it is also way too late. Why didn&#x27;t we support the industry we had?<p>China is steamrolling us, because 1) they think and act strategic, 2) size-wise, they are not one country but many countries and city-states working as one and 3) they are beating us at our own game because we have a slavish devotion to WTO principles while they will use protectionism if it benefits them. The thing is: Europe could have done most of this, too.