zlacker

Why is this a surprise?

Who do you expect to design and make chips for national security-level programs in the future wars when Taiwan is a deep crater?

Every serious nation state has an arch design house and a fab. It need not be cutting edge (most militry stuff is a few gens old), but it needs to exist. Russia has Elbrus. China has Looonsoon and SMIC. Europe has ARM but is a bit behind here fab-wise. However, STMicro does have fabs in europe.

This is just securing access and control of national-security level resources.

>>dmitry+(OP)
The surprise is the federal government acting like an unfair negotiator, substantially altering the deal after it had already been struck. Equity in return for investment grants was never a part of CHIPS, and was only made part of it by Trump who seems to have originally wanted to kill the deal because it wasn't made by him.

>>dmitry+(OP)
Taiwan.

The thing is, even though the US is trying to create an alternative for itself, once Taiwan is in danger, this would for the EU mean a total US microchip monopoly, so radical action becomes necessary.

If I were a political leader in the EU I would consider nuclear weapons sharing with Taiwan if that happened.