The Semiconductor Industry and Chip Wars
Why semiconductors are the most geopolitically contested technology on earth, TSMC's critical role, and the global race to build domestic chip capacity.
The Foundation of Modern Technology
Semiconductors are to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th: the essential resource on which everything else depends. Every smartphone, laptop, car, weapon system, medical device, and AI model runs on chips. Global semiconductor revenue exceeded $530 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030. Without chips, modern civilization stops.
The industry's structure is extraordinarily concentrated. Design is dominated by a few firms: Nvidia for AI chips, Apple and Qualcomm for mobile, Intel and AMD for processors. Manufacturing of the most advanced chips is controlled by a single company: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which fabricates roughly 90% of the world's most advanced chips. The equipment needed to make advanced chips comes from one Dutch company, ASML, whose extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines cost $350 million each.
