[hedgehog]

I thought it was weak, his core argument seems to boil down to the idea that if there were more domestic competition then device manufacturers would somehow be willing to buy worse chips for more money. It just doesn't make any sense. The woes of Intel, Micron, etc are nobody's faults but their own.

[sqeaky]

If there were more domestic producers would their chips still be worse?

[hedgehog]

He's arguing for more competition on the customer side (with Apple) but starting more domestic fabs wouldn't directly help unless they have backing with patience and absurdly deep pockets. A big reason we're in this situation is that it's incredibly expensive to stay at the leading edge, and even when you have the money it's hard to do (see: Intel). Intel is only one node behind (N4 at a fab in Ireland), I'm not sure what will be running in their new US fab in Arizona but it will probably be an older process when they get online. Same with TSMC's facility. Maybe that's good enough, there are also very few customers that have the volume to justify spending on the latest process.