> ASML having a quasi-monopoly in lithography machines are nonsense
They absolutely do, and it's becuase the US chose to give it to ASML Holdings instead of Nikon due to antitrust concerns in the 2000s-early 2010s.
> Could you define "all"?
Lithography machines are complex and filled with several parts. The primary part that allows you to do light based lithography is the Light Source - a very advanced form of Laser. This is what Cymer manufactures and developed in conjunction with Lawrence Livermore National Labs. But technology in isolation is useless - it needs to be capitalized in order to be built and utilized. This is why LLNL brought ASML in as a private sector partner for Cymer.
> That makes the China vs Taiwan debacle even less important to the US
The "Taiwan Chips" aspect was always nonsense that was literally lobbied by Intel in 2019 to force TSMC to burn $20B building a factory in Arizona while giving Intel some breathing room to build a Foundary IDM.
Also, the intermediate parts for fabrication are largely manufactured in Japan and South Korea. There are a number of vendors in Taiwan now, but there is an ecosystem in the other two as well.
> less important to the US, since there's nothing to worry about.
Wrong. Taiwan is part of the first island chain. Without Taiwan, much of the US's Pacific seaboard becomes very difficult to defend, and leaves us open to a Pearl Harbor 2.0.
Even in 20th century, the only time the US ever lost land was to the Japanese when they invaded American Phillipines, portions of Alaska, and planned to invade Hawaii.
This is why you see horrible unseriousness about Ukraine by US admins. Ukraine is bad, but Taiwan is existential for the US, and why just about every US admin is much more worried about China compared to Russia.
No European nation other than France has the capacity to help us in the Pacific, so they may as well help load balance/burden share in Europe and MENA. It will make both North America and our European allies stronger.
They absolutely do, and it's becuase the US chose to give it to ASML Holdings instead of Nikon due to antitrust concerns in the 2000s-early 2010s.
> Could you define "all"?
Lithography machines are complex and filled with several parts. The primary part that allows you to do light based lithography is the Light Source - a very advanced form of Laser. This is what Cymer manufactures and developed in conjunction with Lawrence Livermore National Labs. But technology in isolation is useless - it needs to be capitalized in order to be built and utilized. This is why LLNL brought ASML in as a private sector partner for Cymer.
> That makes the China vs Taiwan debacle even less important to the US
The "Taiwan Chips" aspect was always nonsense that was literally lobbied by Intel in 2019 to force TSMC to burn $20B building a factory in Arizona while giving Intel some breathing room to build a Foundary IDM.
Also, the intermediate parts for fabrication are largely manufactured in Japan and South Korea. There are a number of vendors in Taiwan now, but there is an ecosystem in the other two as well.
> less important to the US, since there's nothing to worry about.
Wrong. Taiwan is part of the first island chain. Without Taiwan, much of the US's Pacific seaboard becomes very difficult to defend, and leaves us open to a Pearl Harbor 2.0.
Even in 20th century, the only time the US ever lost land was to the Japanese when they invaded American Phillipines, portions of Alaska, and planned to invade Hawaii.
This is why you see horrible unseriousness about Ukraine by US admins. Ukraine is bad, but Taiwan is existential for the US, and why just about every US admin is much more worried about China compared to Russia.
No European nation other than France has the capacity to help us in the Pacific, so they may as well help load balance/burden share in Europe and MENA. It will make both North America and our European allies stronger.