4 ms·

Because that's not where you end up in a world without numerous serious competitors.

• Macha 4y ago
  I would generally assume a lack of competitors would lead to a decreased need to innovate and therefore fatter margins.
  • blihp 4y ago
    Right, which is pretty much where we are now: very fat margins largely because fabs have been banging up against capacity for a while now because they could. (i.e. to avoid the risk of overcapacity... why take a chance if you don't have to?) In a more perfect world with healthy competition, one or more of them would see the lack of capacity and see opportunity to take the risk to build a new fab to take some of that business. The fact that it's basically governments saying 'you will do this' tells you everything you need to know about how much the players are really driven by competition. It's a great time to be a semi manufacturer: TSMC has customers like Apple funding their expansion, Intel has the U.S. government funding theirs. Can you blame them? A decade of record profits isn't what it used to be...