[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