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Strategic system

Semiconductors

Few places can do each step, so one break spreads everywhere.

The basics

Chips pass through a long chain. Design is led by US firms; the machines that print the most advanced chips come from the Netherlands, Japan and the United States, and one Dutch company, ASML, is the only maker of the most advanced lithography machines. Fabrication of leading-edge chips is concentrated in Taiwan, with South Korea next; assembly, packaging and testing happen mostly across Asia.

Because only a handful of firms and places can do each step, export controls, tariffs, or a disruption at one point carry through the whole chain.

Why it matters from India

India is building chip fabrication and packaging plants under its Semiconductor Mission, and its electronics and auto industries import chips. Export controls and supply shocks hit both.

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