[Koliakis]

Taiwan was quite successful with the policies they implemented to home-grow a semiconductor industry:

https://www.nap.edu/read/10677/chapter/9

The entire chapter is interesting, but it also mentions how TSMC came to be:

> The government came to realize that it did not yet have an industry—only one company. The private sector was still fearful of risk and could not raise enough money to start new firms. Once again the government put up money, this time to start TSMC. And this time it applied a condition: The government’s share would be less than 50 percent. Lacking enough funds from the private sector, the government made an offer to Philips, which put in almost 35 percent of the initial investment; this pushed the private sector’s share above 50 percent, and TSMC was born. Again, the technology and all the people came from ERSO, including about 130 engineers, the 2-micron CMOS developed at ERSO, and its latest 6-inch-wafer fab. TSMC had no product, only the fab technology, which matched well with the idea of a pure-play foundry.

I don't get why Europe is so bad at this kind of thing.

[bassman9000]

Because Taiwan is a single, small country, with a single government, and a great incentive to succeed in semiconductors.

The EU is a conglomerate of 20+ hyperbureaucratic states where the incentive is to drag these initiatives for years and billions, get nowhere, and repeat. A lot of people will make a lot of money, regardless the outcome.

[ggm]

I'd put it slightly differently. Germans won't fund Philips. France wants CI Honeywell Bull, not Olivetti.

If you want to invest, you either back new starts which wind up being a race to host them, or you back collaborative projects which force Bull, Olivetti, ICL, to work together. Sorry, they just never really work. Too much competitive tension.

Taiwan, its kind-of a bit more apparent. The nasty neighbour is just across the straights. You better get your act together.

[TMWNN]

This is also why there won't ever be a European Silicon Valley. Paris isn't going to support any Europe-wide effort to create one that isn't located in the Hexagon, nor will Berlin support one that isn't somewhere in Germany. London pre-Brexit would not and did not support anything that might take away from Silicon Fen.

While other US states encourage their own tech centers' growth, Floridians and New Yorkers and Texans are all aware of, benefit from, and are proud of Silicon Valley being in the US.

[imtringued]

This is a pretty good explanation for why most EU initiatives can't work. It's because they have to make everyone happy, which is an unattainable goal.