[hn_submit]

You would think that the DRAM shortage would propel Europe to invest in DRAM fabs. But no, they think it's too risky because prices may fall in the next few years and building fabs costs a lot of money and is hard. They'd rather sell other people's stuff than make it themselves.

Ergo, the Chinese will take this sector too without so much of a whimper from Europe.

In a couple of years the Chinese will own 25% of the DRAM market and make bumper profits akin to Big Tech. Europe's response will be to levy import tariffs to at least siphon off some money from it.

[mortarion]

It's not possible. High living costs, high energy costs (100x of China) and high regulatory costs all mean that if you were to build a modern fab, you'd need to sell your product for way more than the price offered by the competition in Asia and the USA, just to break even.

The interstate competition you see in the USA, where states compete against each other for companies to invest, is plain illegal in the EU.

Tax breaks? Illegal. Subsidized energy? Illegal. Subsidized land? Illegal. Permit exemptions? Illegal.

EU countries are not allowed to compete against each other by offering targeted state aid as incentive. This is to prevent wealthier EU nations from outcompeting poorer EU nations when it comes investments.

Basically the EU, in our infinite wisdom, are forever doomed to be disadvantaged.

[pojzon]

EU will regulate itself out of everything, sit, cry and complaign about devastated economy.

Noone votes for these ppl and stupid decisions they make destroy everyones lifes.