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This makes me wonder, why don't they produce semiconductors themselves instead of selling the machines to produce them?
by janmo 5y ago
This makes me wonder, why don't they produce semiconductors themselves instead of selling the machines to produce them?
- catmanjan 5y agoI imagine its a bit like selling pickaxes in a mining boom
- lotsofpulp 5y agoI imagine it is because it is more economical for the chips to be made near the cheaper labor where the end product is manufactured.
- xiphias2 5y agoIt could be done with a merger with TSMC (or Samsung), but at this scale these companies are critical for the countries themselves. A merger like this would be extremely political.
- southerntofu 5y ago> why don't they produce semiconductors themselves Apart from the different field of expertise at play (think manufacturing cooking equipment vs running a full-scale canteen), there's also environmental concerns. Looks like ASML has outsourced much of the production of key components to 3rd-party countries. Electronics manufacturing has a considerable environmental impact (see articles about chemical soil/water pollution in china) and global north countries are happy to have others exploit their population and damage their environment in their place. This is similar to how the "recycling" industry operates.