| > I think you're, er, exaggerating this a little; Intel and GlobalFoundries both have large fabs in Europe. Given that Intel is going to be fabbing some nVidia chips, some of those will quite likely be made in their "Intel 4" (ie 7nm) fab in Ireland. And GlobalFoundries has a big (albeit older-tech) fab in Germany. Bosch also has a big 40nm fab in Germany for car stuff; old process, but high volume. The thing is, the old GlobalFoundries fab has been constructed decades ago. Building something like this from scratch nowadays involves so much more paperwork than back then, it's a massive hurdle to overcome. > As for medicine, the world's largest drug exporting countries are Germany, Switzerland, the US, and Ireland, more or less in that order Finished medicine yes. But the precursors and "active pharmaceutical ingredients" (APIs)? 40% China, 20% India... and that's the total market share. For some ingredients, you got 95% (vit B) to 98% (Chloramphenicol) of the entire world's supply being made in China [1]. And of the APIs made in the EU or US, quite a lot depend on precursors made in India and China, or filler materials. Medicine isn't about curing patients any more, it is about making money first and foremost, and that's why everyone and their dog went to India and China - India first because India is more cooperative with international audit teams than China is. And even then, there have been quite the amount of scandals [2][3][4]. (Side note re [4]: wtf is that banner "Democrats have shut down the government"?! Yes, everyone knows about the government shutdown, but ... isn't it illegal to blatantly engage in partisanship for government agencies?!) [1] https://chinaobservers.eu/how-to-address-europes-dependence-... [2] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/20/health/fda-medications-pr... [3] https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/12/fda-withdraw-approval-40... [4] https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/indian-cancer-drug-m... |
The big Bosch fab was built in 2021 (they previously had a smaller one, I think). The latest Intel fab in Ireland was finished in 2023.