This was interesting (and funny). China really is the factory of the world. When the tariffs bight the West will notice.
Everything You Own Comes from This Place (25 min)
It is Taiwan and Japan but especially Holland that has the extremely high-tech next generation machines for making chips. Dutch ASML makes the most expensive complex chip making machines. Without them China cannot compete in the high-tech market.
This is a big sign that we are decoupling East and West and moving to a multi-polar world. These machines cost $200 million each and they are not selling any to China.
Why The World Relies On ASML For Machines That Print Chips (18 min)
In a Dutch factory, there’s a revolutionary chipmaking machine the whole world has come to rely on. It takes months to assemble, and only one company in the world knows how: Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography. CNBC got an exclusive tour inside ASML’s cleanrooms to see how these $200 million EUV systems print minuscule designs on advanced microchips using exploding molten tin, the flattest surface in the world, and light so narrow it’s absorbed by air. Once ASML is done building and testing an EUV lithography machine, it’s so big that it needs to be disassembled and loaded on 20 trucks or three 747s for shipment. Only five customers can afford EUV machines, the biggest being TSMC, Samsung and Intel - and ASML export controls keep ASML from sending any to China. Here’s a rare, inside look at how nearly 800 suppliers come together to create the technology required to print every advanced chip powering the digital world, from data centers to iPhones.