New Mexico has (pockets of) exceptionally well-educated population. 3 of the top 100 counties for PhDs per capita are in New Mexico (including #1, Los Alamos).
That's precisely my point. You need both the talent and the investment to execute this. Simply stating "Asian culture" is a stretch at best. The Asian economies made a ton of investment into semiconductors from the 1990s onwards, which are paying off now. Los Alamos is a pocket of exceptional PhDs because of the US government's investment into the institutional projects as well as building the infrastructure to attract talent to come and work in the middle of nowhere. That ended up creating a broader ecosystem of innovation there. What has the German government done, except for creating policies and regulations to ensure incumbents remain powerful? India pumps out more STEM graduates than most of the world combined, but what does it have to show for that in semiconductor technology but for a few middling projects?
Los Alamos would still be a desert without USG giving it a few billion dollars every year.
Los Alamos would still be a desert without USG giving it a few billion dollars every year.