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EU countries team up for semiconductor push

reuters.com

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Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#461

Post by FooBarWidget »

cromka wrote: post #433
MangoCoffee wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If, at the time of the founding of TSMC, you had tried to get a consortium of companies, much less nations, to agree on the idea of a semiconductor foundry, you would not have been able to get agreement to do it. Consortiums can help to pool resources when everyone knows what needs doing TSMC or its ecosystem is already like a consortium. this semiwiki article point that out. https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-manuf…

Just wondering if in the light of this announcement and the China's attempts at taking over the TMSC control, wouldn't it be better if TMSC relocated their HQ to Europe? Not saying they should move completely, but to strategize to limit their operational risks. I am sure they'd receive some nice grants from EU.

China taking over TSMC control. How, exactly? China isn't looking to invade Taiwan any time soon, unless America puts bases in Taiwan first. And an invasion of Taiwan would immediately result in the destruction of TSMC, thus invasion is not a viable strategy to gain TSMC.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#462

Post by mlyle »

tristor wrote: post #457
nixass wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth noting that many Americans I know in Europe, have no plans to ever come back, they don't see USA as an option anymore once experienced life here. Source: work for FAANG, I see many one way relocations US>EU, not so much other way around. Furthermore: 1. yeah, triple the money, quadruple the life costs, and no social security safety net, or at least poor one. 2. what? 3. FREEDOM - very US centric view on the "fr…

I don't think the number of Europeans coming to the US or the number of Americans going to Europe is massively high in either direction, so we're talking about a pretty specific subset of people for whom this makes sense, mostly for economic reasons. 1. Life costs are nowhere near quadruple, in fact they are roughly equal to lower in the US. I have no idea where you think this costs more, but I feel like this is a po…

> so we're talking about a pretty specific subset of people for whom this makes sense, mostly for economic reasons.

That's the thing that interested me about TacticalCoder's comment: it didn't seem to be some small preference or economic factor but seemed to have a lot of vehemence behind it.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#463

Post by dingaling »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #157
arnaudsm wrote: post #8

This is a great decision! I never understood why Europe under-invested in semi considering the talents they have and the strategic nature of it. Intel is dying a slow death, ARM is leaving UK's control, and TSMC is slowly taken over by China. The tables are turning.

> This is a great decision! If they can execute, which I very much doubt, given the history of similar EU initiatives. The only example I can think of is Airbus. Those funds are usually funneled toward bullshit vendors that are specialised in milking such EU programs, with nothing to show for it afterwards.

Airbus predates the EU, it was formed as a consortium between Sud Aviation, VFW-Fokker and Hawker-Siddeley back in 1966.

It was fortunate for Europe that the consortium had a longer-term objective as opposed to other pan-European aircraft projects like Panavia and SEPECAT.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#464

Post by dejv »

screye wrote: post #335

Genuine question - Has any major tech innovation/ product come out European industry (mainland EU) over the last couple of decades ? (not Academia) Their biggest tech companies are Spotify and Skype. That's pretty underwhelming given that Spotify's biggest innovations are in product development and Skype became a subsidiary of an American company within 2 years of its existence. Additionally, the 2 companies that see…

Antivirus software is quite strong in EU: Avast and AVG (acquired by Avast) come to mind.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#465

Post by Bayart »

mrtksn wrote: post #330
rossdavidh wrote: post #254

So, as someone who used to be an engineer in semiconductor manufacturing facilities, this reminds me a lot of Sematech. That was a joint venture between American companies in the 90's, when there was a concern that we were falling behind Japan. I'm sure there will be people who try to claim otherwise, but my view from inside AMD (at that time still doing its own manufacturing) was that nothing much ever came out of S…

Europe has some successful international projects like CERN or Airbus. Besides, what are the other options? Europe is in this strange place where collectively account for enormous wealth and power but individually no country is a match to the big boys like USA/China when simultaneously are super unoptimised due to cultural/lingual differences. The younger Europeans I met were all very eager to learn English, so who k…

>maybe as the UK is out of the EU the English language can become the lingua franca

I hope I die before that ever happens.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#466

Post by b0rsuk »

arnaudsm wrote: post #8

This is a great decision! I never understood why Europe under-invested in semi considering the talents they have and the strategic nature of it. Intel is dying a slow death, ARM is leaving UK's control, and TSMC is slowly taken over by China. The tables are turning.

Wilk Elektronik from Poland is the only RAM manufacturer in Europe. Their Goodram brand is getting good reviews.

It ain't much, but it's honest work.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#467

Post by ClumsyPilot »

screye wrote: post #335

Genuine question - Has any major tech innovation/ product come out European industry (mainland EU) over the last couple of decades ? (not Academia) Their biggest tech companies are Spotify and Skype. That's pretty underwhelming given that Spotify's biggest innovations are in product development and Skype became a subsidiary of an American company within 2 years of its existence. Additionally, the 2 companies that see…

Skype was great software, came out in 2003 (!) , at the time when whatsapp, facebook and twitter didn't even exist!

It was the first practical videocall software and pioniered the niche. It did more to improve my life than all social networks combined. I backed it with hard cash, paying for Skype premium or whatever it was called.

Then in 2011 MS bought it, and best as I can tell, has delivered no real improvement for the consumer.

The client was rewritten twice, now it's in JS, glitchy, slower and serves adds.

I think the world would have been better off with independant Skype, Zoom should have never become a thing.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#468

Post by CaciaraAsAServi »

ajnin wrote: post #271
joelbluminator wrote: post #196

Why isn't Netherlands mentioned btw? What semiconductors companies did Germany , France and Spain built so far? Netherlands has ASML, NXP and ASM...

ST Microelectronics, merger of French and Italian nationalized semiconductor industries.

Yup! SGS from Italy and Thomson from France, in 1987 (not '88, corrected). ST in fact used to mean SGS-Thomson.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#469

Post by lottin »

russli1993 wrote: post #396

Under this line of thinking, EU or Britain should think twice about approving Nvidia's purchase of arm. Arm's British's one of the most influential technology company in the world. And with Apple's M1 and other arm chips movements lately, the future of computing will be moving to arm from x86. Arm is not financially strong right now, but there are so much potential to improve it's financials. Make arm remains an Brit…

ARM is owned by a Japanese conglomerate since 2016.

Re: EU countries team up for semiconductor push

#470

Post by Brakenshire »

dbspin wrote: post #437
nixass wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Irish/Gaelic language is a thing it's mostly ceremonial and people on the street know it poorly, with no knowledge to even superficial conversation. Irish language has no use in Ireland. Even tho it is "official", it's useless

Just want to confirm this as an Irish person. The language is of symbolic / nationalist importance only. It's not used in everyday life except by hobbyists or residents of a few tiny 'gaeltacht' areas. In other words, English is in practice the first language of virtually every Irish person, the vast majority of media, and all business in the country.

Out of interest, what’s the trend in that? Is it fading out or increasing?
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