A file photo of employees working on a lithography machine at the ASML Holding NV factory in Veldhoven, Netherlands. ASML, a Dutch company, has a complete hold over the global semiconductor industry, being the only one in the world that owns the technology and makes the machinery to cut and slice thin chips out of silicon wafers physically. ASML is already working on a new generation of lithography machine called high-NA-EUV, which will allow chipmakers to make 2nm processors and mark a major milestone in chip production.Image by Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Employees work on Apple iPhone production at a Foxconn factory on September 4, 2021, in Zhongmu County, Henan, China. TSMC"s recent success has been linked to one client"s trust in particular: Apple. For the first six generations of iPhones, Apple had outsourced the manufacturing of its chips to the South Korea-based Samsung. Later, Samsung launched its own competing Galaxy smartphones, causing Apple to file a lawsuit over IP theft in 2011, which ended with Apple winning $539 million in a settlement. That dispute was a boon to TSMC as Apple withdrew its supply chains from Samsung and lay clear of partnerships that favour a potential rival. Taiwan-based TSMC was a dedicated foundry business with no rivalling interests, and Apple remains their biggest client to date.Image by VCG via Getty Images
A file photo of the 8080 microprocessor, the first microprocessor powerful enough to build a computer around, introduced by Intel in 1974. Pioneers like Intel designed and built chips in-house at the start of the modern computing industry. By the 1980s, American firms, struggling against Japanese competitors, began outsourcing the fabricating sides of their businesses and concentrated on the more profitable design aspect of the chip. The US has recently turned to global silicon trade for a geostrategic reason. A tech cold war with China began in early 2021 when semiconductor chip shortage and delayed delivery times set off alarms about its utter dependence on China.Image by SSPL/Getty Images
A "First Tool-In" ceremony at the TSMC facility under construction in Phoenix, Arizona, US, on December 6, 2022. Despite its dominance of chip design, America is racing to build chipmaking fabs onshore. Intel is revamping its foundry business, building two new fabs in Arizona and a pair of fabs at its Ohio megasite. Last year, TSMC unveiled its US plans, adding a second Arizona fab and investing billions to start production in 2026. In Oct 2022, Micron announced its plans to spend $20 billion to build the largest ever US semiconductor factory, a memory chip fabrication plant in New York"s Onondaga County, the size of 40 football fields and create about 50,000 jobs.Image by Caitlin O"Hara/Bloomberg via Getty Images
