"Hot" race to invest in semiconductor industry

Computer chips are an important input to many other high-tech industries, so having a country with a semiconductor manufacturing base supports an entire ecosystem of high-value economic activity. And the semiconductor industry is seen as a core part of the technological competition between great powers in the 21st century.

With a wide application in all high-tech industries, from electronics, automobiles, computers, to communication equipment, the semiconductor industry's revenue has reached more than 400 billion USD in 2020, increasing 6.5% compared to 2019 despite the COVID-19 pandemic causing a drop in global economic activity.

In terms of companies, only 3 companies TSMC of Taiwan (China), Samsung of Korea and SMIC of China have dominated 4/5 of the world chip market.

After a long period of seeing the semiconductor manufacturing industry move into new economies in Asia, the US and Japan are both working to regain their position as market leaders.

Of the $250 billion budget allocated for the competitiveness bill passed by the US Senate, $52 billion will be used to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

In order to limit risks to the domestic industrial manufacturing industry, especially after the impacts of the pandemic, Japan has announced a basic strategy, setting sales targets of companies producing components that sell parts to the domestic industry. in Japan will triple to $118 billion by 2030.

The European Union (EU) also announced that it will allow member states to subsidize the domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry to compete with Asian countries, aiming to capture 20% of the market share. global semiconductor industry by 2030.

Initially, the chip shortage problem was simply a temporary supply disruption caused by factories forced to close when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, affecting production. However, up to now, although production activities in most countries around the world have almost returned to normal, the increase in demand due to changes in consumer behavior after the pandemic has made the The shortage of electronic chips is sometimes at a crisis level.

Besides the global shortage of chips, another reason why governments are not afraid to spend money on developing advanced chip factories is fear of dependence on other countries. Therefore, having autonomy in the semiconductor industry will help reduce the vulnerability of countries to any supply chain disruptions and geopolitical risks.