The Western chip industry: fat, dumb and spoiled

“There’s no long-term vision, no long-term focus. If I sometimes look at our society, I have the feeling that we’re fat, dumb and happy,” said ASML CEO Peter Wennink during the opening of the academic year at Eindhoven University of Technology. He probably meant “fat, dumb and spoiled,” but his PR staff must have said: better make it “happy” or the whole country will mock you.

The words “happy” and certainly “spoiled” may well be used to express the state of the industry Wennink is working in. Semiconductor companies are among the most profitable companies, yet governments are pampering powerful players like Intel and TSMC with billions in subsidies. Blinded by the anti-China rhetoric from Washington, politicians and industry think the race can be won by pumping taxpayer money into nanofabs, but in doing so, they’re ignoring a large part of the playing field.