The Semiconductor Arms Race Continues

Earlier this week, the Semiconductors in America Coalition (SIAC) was formed with members including the most powerful chip makers in the U.S. like Intel Corporation INTC, NVIDIA Corporation NVDA, and the most powerful chip users Amazon.com AMZN, Apple Inc AAPL, and Microsoft Corporation MSFT. The coalition’s mission statement is to “advance federal policies that promote semiconductor manufacturing and research in the US to strengthen America’s economy, national security, and critical infrastructure.”

The primary focus is to secure a $50 billion funding from the U.S. government. A few days later, South Korea unveiled its own ambitious plan to invest $450 billion in semiconductor manufacturing over the next decade, spearheaded by Samsung and SK. Hynix. “Major global competitors are pressing ahead with massive investment to be the first to take the future market. Our companies have been taking risks and innovating as well and have completed preparations for tumultuous times,” the organization said. 

On the same day, the European Commission put out a press release, welcoming 22 EU Member States to collaborate on leading-edge processor technology closely. “Europe has all it takes to diversify and reduce critical dependencies while remaining open. We will therefore need to set ambitious plans, from the design of chips to advanced manufacturing progressing towards 2nm nodes, with the aim of differentiating and leading on our most important value chains. Today’s highly welcomed joint effort is an important leap forward - it will pave the way to the launch of an industrial alliance.” The silicon war is very likely to escalate to another whole new level at a much large scale.