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Arguably the most technically advanced EU country Sweden always avoids Franco-German initiatives and the leader in chip technology in Europe is the brexiting UK

Arguably the most technically advanced EU country Sweden always avoids Franco-German initiatives and the leader in chip technology in Europe is the brexiting UK with the globally dominant ARM platform (soon to be acquired by NVIDIA from Softbank).

_Microft 6y ago
Isn't ASML [0] the leading manufacturer of photolithography machines? They are dutch. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASML_Holding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASML_Holding
- ichbinwiederda 6y ago
  Beat me to it. Also Sweden is leading in tech, how exactly?
  - _Microft 6y ago
    They have number dispensers at the meat or bread counters in supermarkets which is quite neat. You do not have to wait in a queue and can do your other grocery shoppings until the display shows your number. ;)
    - jacknews 6y ago
      lol
    - Semaphor 6y ago
      We have that in Germany as well in some places (CITTI Markt, Northern Germany)
      - kuschku 6y ago
        Yeah but CITTI is the only one to actually do modern stuff (although coop/Sky tried out a few as well, but that ended with the REWE acquisition). And outside of SH, it's even worse.
        Semaphor 6y ago
        There is a rewe here using e-ink price signs. But it’s privately owned so that doesn’t really count ;) And at least for my normal rewe, it would make no sense to have those numbers, the average is below 1 person who’s in front of me at the counter.
- brmgb 6y ago
  Yes, as a European, the past two decades were maddening. Europe had no vision concerning strategic industrial assets. Advanced steel production was sold to India. Key assets in the energy sector were pillaged by GE. The UK sold a leader in chip design to Japan and despite having ASML being at the forefront of photolithography there still is no credible fab in the EU. The pandemic really highlighted some major shortcomings regarding the EU production capacity. These are major failures. Hopefully, as this was mostly due to constant sabotages by the UK, the situation will improve now that they are gone. Sadly, their constant push for enlargement can't really be undone and might still doom the union in the end.
  - ducktective 6y ago
    Can you elaborate on "UK's sabotages"?
    - brmgb 6y ago
      But certainly, the UK has been against any kind of concerted efforts by the EU which might go further than the single market for as long as they were a member. They lobbied heavily to be left out of the common agricultural policy and tried to diminish as much as they coud, were against Maastricht and were not a member of the Eurozone, pushed heavily for enlargement ensuring they would be no political cohesion in the union. Leon Brittan as a trade commissioner was a staunch opponent to any kind of state aid in the 90s and single handly significantly weakened the European industry. Don't get me wrong, I like England. Great country, nice culture, shit partner. As far as I am concerned, Brexit is probably the best thing to ever happen to the EU.
      - imtringued 6y ago
        I agree. The UK never really wanted to be part of the EU. It only wanted to cherrypick the best parts and nothing else. Once they decided to leave I wasn't thinking a single thought about the EU crumbling but rather "good riddance". Other than the northern Ireland dilemma it is a win win situation. Of course the UK will take a hit in the short term but failing to prepare for that is on them. It was their decision.
kzrdude 6y ago
I've never heard of Sweden being big in (electronics/IT) hardware manufacturing, what kind of industries are there?
- queuep 6y ago
  Not alot anymore, although alot of Swedes still think they are in the lead. Although, Ericsson had their manufacturing in Sweden before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericsson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericsson
  - kzrdude 6y ago
    I see. I guess Axis Communications is doing ok too.. but do any of these have any euoropean manufacturing?
jariel 6y ago
I don't see Sweden leading in tech so much as being 'tech progressive'. Sweden is ahead in some things related to tech, particularly their own version of startups. Spotify remember, is related to the fact that Sweden is a pop-music powerhouse - there is definitely industry synergy there. They are generally well organized for a small country, they make Jet Fighters (quite a feat) which is also related to the fact they are a few degrees more 'sovereign' in that they are not part of NATO and have historical antagonisms with a much bigger power, Russia. They had one of the world's largest air forces back when individual fighters were only the price of a few cars. Those synergies resonate with one another but I don't think it's in silicon.
- queuep 6y ago
  I would say generally the swedes are progressive as you say. For example, not alot of cash is being used, most use credit cards/apple pay/swish(like cashapp I guess). My guess would be that most swedes haven't even seen the new paper money design.
- Apocryphon 6y ago
  Reminds me of Japan in some ways.
adrian_b 6y ago
In semiconductors Sweden was never more important than between 6th to 15th position in Europe. The only well-known company that might have made semiconductors was ASEA, which might have made some thyristors before disappearing 33 years ago, after the fusion with Brown Boveri. Now ABB has the headquarters in Switzerland. It has various sites in Sweden, but so have some US companies, without any of them being considered as Swedish. Even the Eastern Block countries, during the Soviet hegemony, produced more diverse semiconductor devices than ever done in Sweden. The most technically advanced countries in semiconductors in Europe, before the global fashion of mergers, acquisitions and spin-offs that obliterated most traditional semiconductor companies starting around 1999, were (in no particular order): Netherlands (Philips) Germany (Siemens) France (Thomson CSF) Italy (SGS-ATES) UK (Plessey and a few others) Relics of the former European semiconductor companies can be found now mostly in Infineon, NXP and ST, but all these present companies are the results of long chains of mergers and acquisitions of various companies spread all over the world, so it is difficult to define them as belonging to Europe, US or to any other specific country or group of countries.
- mongol 6y ago
  The fusion with Brown Boveri was like you say a fusion, not an acquisition. The HQ needs to be somewhere, but ABB is apart from that about as much Swedish as Swiss. Asea was one of the companies within the influence of the Wallenberg family and their company Investor were as of 2015 the largest individual shareholder of ABB.
  - adrian_b 6y ago
    You are right. I agree that it is correct to view ABB as half Swedish. I was exaggerating a bit, as a counterbalance to the weird statement to which I was replying. Nevertheless, while ABB is a great company, its importance as a semiconductor manufacturer is minimal. ABB sells electronic equipment, which is made with components made elsewhere, except for some high-power thyristors that are made by themselves. Thyristors are the easiest to make among semiconductor devices that are still used. The only really difficult part to make are the high-quality silicon wafers from which they are made, but ABB does not make the wafers. Most likely they purchase the wafers from Japan, or maybe from Germany.

_Microft 6y ago

Isn't ASML [0] the leading manufacturer of photolithography machines? They are dutch. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASML_Holding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASML_Holding

ichbinwiederda 6y ago
Beat me to it. Also Sweden is leading in tech, how exactly?
- _Microft 6y ago
  They have number dispensers at the meat or bread counters in supermarkets which is quite neat. You do not have to wait in a queue and can do your other grocery shoppings until the display shows your number. ;)
  - jacknews 6y ago
    lol
  - Semaphor 6y ago
    We have that in Germany as well in some places (CITTI Markt, Northern Germany)
    - kuschku 6y ago
      Yeah but CITTI is the only one to actually do modern stuff (although coop/Sky tried out a few as well, but that ended with the REWE acquisition). And outside of SH, it's even worse.
      - Semaphor 6y ago
        There is a rewe here using e-ink price signs. But it’s privately owned so that doesn’t really count ;) And at least for my normal rewe, it would make no sense to have those numbers, the average is below 1 person who’s in front of me at the counter.
brmgb 6y ago
Yes, as a European, the past two decades were maddening. Europe had no vision concerning strategic industrial assets. Advanced steel production was sold to India. Key assets in the energy sector were pillaged by GE. The UK sold a leader in chip design to Japan and despite having ASML being at the forefront of photolithography there still is no credible fab in the EU. The pandemic really highlighted some major shortcomings regarding the EU production capacity. These are major failures. Hopefully, as this was mostly due to constant sabotages by the UK, the situation will improve now that they are gone. Sadly, their constant push for enlargement can't really be undone and might still doom the union in the end.
- ducktective 6y ago
  Can you elaborate on "UK's sabotages"?
  - brmgb 6y ago
    But certainly, the UK has been against any kind of concerted efforts by the EU which might go further than the single market for as long as they were a member. They lobbied heavily to be left out of the common agricultural policy and tried to diminish as much as they coud, were against Maastricht and were not a member of the Eurozone, pushed heavily for enlargement ensuring they would be no political cohesion in the union. Leon Brittan as a trade commissioner was a staunch opponent to any kind of state aid in the 90s and single handly significantly weakened the European industry. Don't get me wrong, I like England. Great country, nice culture, shit partner. As far as I am concerned, Brexit is probably the best thing to ever happen to the EU.
    - imtringued 6y ago
      I agree. The UK never really wanted to be part of the EU. It only wanted to cherrypick the best parts and nothing else. Once they decided to leave I wasn't thinking a single thought about the EU crumbling but rather "good riddance". Other than the northern Ireland dilemma it is a win win situation. Of course the UK will take a hit in the short term but failing to prepare for that is on them. It was their decision.

kzrdude 6y ago

I've never heard of Sweden being big in (electronics/IT) hardware manufacturing, what kind of industries are there?

queuep 6y ago
Not alot anymore, although alot of Swedes still think they are in the lead. Although, Ericsson had their manufacturing in Sweden before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericsson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ericsson
- kzrdude 6y ago
  I see. I guess Axis Communications is doing ok too.. but do any of these have any euoropean manufacturing?

jariel 6y ago

I don't see Sweden leading in tech so much as being 'tech progressive'. Sweden is ahead in some things related to tech, particularly their own version of startups. Spotify remember, is related to the fact that Sweden is a pop-music powerhouse - there is definitely industry synergy there. They are generally well organized for a small country, they make Jet Fighters (quite a feat) which is also related to the fact they are a few degrees more 'sovereign' in that they are not part of NATO and have historical antagonisms with a much bigger power, Russia. They had one of the world's largest air forces back when individual fighters were only the price of a few cars. Those synergies resonate with one another but I don't think it's in silicon.

queuep 6y ago
I would say generally the swedes are progressive as you say. For example, not alot of cash is being used, most use credit cards/apple pay/swish(like cashapp I guess). My guess would be that most swedes haven't even seen the new paper money design.
Apocryphon 6y ago
Reminds me of Japan in some ways.

adrian_b 6y ago

In semiconductors Sweden was never more important than between 6th to 15th position in Europe. The only well-known company that might have made semiconductors was ASEA, which might have made some thyristors before disappearing 33 years ago, after the fusion with Brown Boveri. Now ABB has the headquarters in Switzerland. It has various sites in Sweden, but so have some US companies, without any of them being considered as Swedish. Even the Eastern Block countries, during the Soviet hegemony, produced more diverse semiconductor devices than ever done in Sweden. The most technically advanced countries in semiconductors in Europe, before the global fashion of mergers, acquisitions and spin-offs that obliterated most traditional semiconductor companies starting around 1999, were (in no particular order): Netherlands (Philips) Germany (Siemens) France (Thomson CSF) Italy (SGS-ATES) UK (Plessey and a few others) Relics of the former European semiconductor companies can be found now mostly in Infineon, NXP and ST, but all these present companies are the results of long chains of mergers and acquisitions of various companies spread all over the world, so it is difficult to define them as belonging to Europe, US or to any other specific country or group of countries.

mongol 6y ago
The fusion with Brown Boveri was like you say a fusion, not an acquisition. The HQ needs to be somewhere, but ABB is apart from that about as much Swedish as Swiss. Asea was one of the companies within the influence of the Wallenberg family and their company Investor were as of 2015 the largest individual shareholder of ABB.
- adrian_b 6y ago
  You are right. I agree that it is correct to view ABB as half Swedish. I was exaggerating a bit, as a counterbalance to the weird statement to which I was replying. Nevertheless, while ABB is a great company, its importance as a semiconductor manufacturer is minimal. ABB sells electronic equipment, which is made with components made elsewhere, except for some high-power thyristors that are made by themselves. Thyristors are the easiest to make among semiconductor devices that are still used. The only really difficult part to make are the high-quality silicon wafers from which they are made, but ABB does not make the wafers. Most likely they purchase the wafers from Japan, or maybe from Germany.