3 ms·

An actual RnD, or engineering? In the link you point to the need of "EU fab." Who do you think will buy its chips? Germans for their cars?

11thEarlOfMar 6y ago
System engineering. We sell subsystems and components to the equipment companies. Chips are sold globally for the most part, regardless of where they are made. EU, US, Japan, Taiwan & Korea made chips are typically leading edge and sold globally. Some China-made chips are only used in China, but they have a large export market for low-cost chips.
- baybal2 6y ago
  > Chips are sold globally Well, they aren't. I see really a lot of people even inside the industry not noticing the elephant in the room. By some digits, China is 60%+ of the world semiconductor market, and much higher than even this digit if you remove secondary products from the calculation. > System engineering. We sell subsystems and components to the equipment companies. What kind of? Do you have a niche market, or you sell whatever toolmaker want to custom order?
  - 11thEarlOfMar 6y ago
    For example, nVidia's chips are made in Taiwan and Korea, and end up in devices sold globally. It's true that a large % of the assembly of circuit boards and electronic products are made in China. We make control system computers. It's very, very niche. Typically, what we sell to one equipment company, we can sell to others. It's very difficult for companies that are outside of the sub-supplier ecosystem to break in. The controllers are usually customized to some extent, then we sell a few hundred annually of that design. 'A few hundred a year' is a home run product.
imtringued 6y ago
Actually, I am surprised that EU isn't competitive in semiconductors. The value of the euro is pretty low considering that you get access to a high quality workforce that ought to get at least 50% higher salaries. This is how Germany has become an export nation. Adopt a currency whose value is being pushed down by neighboring countries. This makes German exports more competitive in the global market. Why has this not worked out for semiconductors?

11thEarlOfMar 6y ago

System engineering. We sell subsystems and components to the equipment companies. Chips are sold globally for the most part, regardless of where they are made. EU, US, Japan, Taiwan & Korea made chips are typically leading edge and sold globally. Some China-made chips are only used in China, but they have a large export market for low-cost chips.

baybal2 6y ago
> Chips are sold globally Well, they aren't. I see really a lot of people even inside the industry not noticing the elephant in the room. By some digits, China is 60%+ of the world semiconductor market, and much higher than even this digit if you remove secondary products from the calculation. > System engineering. We sell subsystems and components to the equipment companies. What kind of? Do you have a niche market, or you sell whatever toolmaker want to custom order?
- 11thEarlOfMar 6y ago
  For example, nVidia's chips are made in Taiwan and Korea, and end up in devices sold globally. It's true that a large % of the assembly of circuit boards and electronic products are made in China. We make control system computers. It's very, very niche. Typically, what we sell to one equipment company, we can sell to others. It's very difficult for companies that are outside of the sub-supplier ecosystem to break in. The controllers are usually customized to some extent, then we sell a few hundred annually of that design. 'A few hundred a year' is a home run product.

imtringued 6y ago

Actually, I am surprised that EU isn't competitive in semiconductors. The value of the euro is pretty low considering that you get access to a high quality workforce that ought to get at least 50% higher salaries. This is how Germany has become an export nation. Adopt a currency whose value is being pushed down by neighboring countries. This makes German exports more competitive in the global market. Why has this not worked out for semiconductors?