[roenxi]

That seems a bit too simple. I saw one particular graph [0] once that really stuck with me illustrating just how decisively Europe was ejected from the semiconductor market. It takes more than just inaction to achieve results like that. In many ways it could be called an impressive feat that only the Europeans could achieve. 44% of production to 9% - losing a steady 1% of the market every year, largest to smallest player. No other region is even in a position to do that badly even if they tried.

[0] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/...

[ifwinterco]

I think it can just take inaction, because it's a market that moves so fast and requires constant enormous investment to keep up.

If you just do nothing within half a decade or so you'll be far behind the cutting edge and at that point the decline gains its own momentum

[roenxi]

It is possible. But that seems out of character for the Europeans, they're pretty consistent about going the distance to make absolutely sure that the next new thing doesn't happen in Europe.

It seems much more likely they had a suite of environmental, social and trade policies carefully calibrated to move semiconductor manufacturing somewhere else.

[ifwinterco]

Part of it is simply the Euro being too strong. Taiwan has a (deliberately) undervalued currency that makes exports a lot more competitive, the EU does not.

It's a super simple strategy with profound effects but somehow still very underappreciated

[IsTom]

I wonder what that would look like on an absolute scale instead of relative %. Might be that just the market grew really big, really fast.

[simgt]

Wow, I had no idea. Thanks for sharing!