They are essential for almost everything, or at least every modern product. technology, from smartphones to cars and from computers to washing machines. The reason is the processors that disappeared from industries around the world, first due to lockdowns and reduced demand, and then due to a heart attack in the supply chain and dizzying demand. Their shortage has led the world’s largest economies – the US, China and the EU – to race to acquire powerful domestic manufacturing industries in a period marked by the return of economic nationalism, according to a related article in the Financial Times.

On the other hand, EE passed the Processor Bill, a €43 billion plan that would subsidize the domestic production of strategic technology components. The plan came to light last month when STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries joined forces to build a processor manufacturing plant in France with government backing. After all, last month the US Congress passed the Processor and Science Act, which provides, among other things, $52 billion in guarantees to support manufacturing and research in the industry. As for China, it continues to acquire Western technology, with a focus on processors, as demonstrated last year by the Chinese company Wingtech Technology, which bought the largest British processor manufacturer Newport Wafer Fab. The takeover even sparked a major debate in Old Albion over whether the British manufacturing sector needed some sort of active support with government guarantees, takeover protection legislation or even an investment programme.

The EU has adopted a plan worth 43 billion euros, which provides for subsidizing domestic production.

As noted by the Financial Times, the global processor industry was caught up in a geopolitical storm that began in 2019 when former US President Donald Trump cited the superpower’s national security concerns to blacklist Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, effectively banning all shipments of the company’s microprocessors worldwide. the world. And a few days ago, China caused widespread concern with military exercises around Taiwan, as the disputed country is home to the world’s largest and most important processor industry, TSMC, which accounts for 90% of the world’s processor manufacturing capacity. With its aggressive actions, China first of all reminded that the world economy depends on a small number of processor industries, mainly located in Asia, where TSMC and South Korean Samsung are in the lead.

Unlike the record orders it recorded daily during the first waves of the pandemic, the processor industry is currently struggling. Companies such as US multinational Nvidia Corp are reporting up to 40% cuts in their core business, and Micron Technology Inc, the largest US memory processor maker, warns that demand is spreading across many sectors. After all, over the course of a week, official data from China showed that processor circuit production fell 17% in July after an impressive rise in 2021.