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So my understanding of the situation, is that during the Soviet years the USSR prioritized having a neon stockpile, and the end result was that after the collap

So my understanding of the situation, is that during the Soviet years the USSR prioritized having a neon stockpile, and the end result was that after the collapse of the USSR, there was so much of a supply glut of neon coming from the former states that it was not possible to compete on (1) or (2), since ex-Soviet factories had the equipment installed and paid for already. And nobody was really betting that there would be an actual full-on land war in Ukraine that would make dependence on this supply glut a problem. Here's another HN comment with sources: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30458819 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30458819

csense 4y ago
So I'm trying to figure out if setting up a new plant costs $100 million and takes a year to come online, and if there's no neon then we can't produce $500 million worth of chips a month. Why isn't some chipmaker or consortium fronting the $100 million and starting to build the plant now, as a cheap insurance policy to make sure they don't lose billions in revenue if the Ukraine production remains inaccessible for years?
- logifail 4y ago
  > Why isn't some chipmaker or consortium fronting the $100 million and starting to build the plant now, as a cheap insurance policy to make sure they don't lose billions in revenue if the Ukraine production remains inaccessible for years? Perhaps because there is a non-zero chance the disruption to the supply of neon will have disappeared long before the plant comes online, cheap supplies will be plentiful again, so they'll have "wasted" the $100 million ... and will have to explain to their investors why they took (with hindsight) such a crazy decision?