> it's outright impossible or very very expensive to do certain manufacturing processes, especially silicon and medicine, due to the substances involved.
I think you're, er, exaggerating this a little; Intel and GlobalFoundries both have large fabs in Europe. Given that Intel is going to be fabbing some nVidia chips, some of those will quite likely be made in their "Intel 4" (ie 7nm) fab in Ireland. And GlobalFoundries has a big (albeit older-tech) fab in Germany. Bosch also has a big 40nm fab in Germany for car stuff; old process, but high volume.
It's only fairly recently that the most advanced fabs have been outside the US or Europe; until late last decade the most advanced process was usually either made at Intel's Irish plant, or one of their US ones. And GlobalFoundries was also competitive at one time.
As for medicine, the world's largest drug exporting countries are Germany, Switzerland, the US, and Ireland, more or less in that order, though it shifts around a bit. Besides the US, _all_ of the top ten exporters are in the EU or EFTA. Germany is also one of the largest, if not the largest, exporters of medical _equipment_.
> I think you're, er, exaggerating this a little; Intel and GlobalFoundries both have large fabs in Europe. Given that Intel is going to be fabbing some nVidia chips, some of those will quite likely be made in their "Intel 4" (ie 7nm) fab in Ireland. And GlobalFoundries has a big (albeit older-tech) fab in Germany. Bosch also has a big 40nm fab in Germany for car stuff; old process, but high volume.
The thing is, the old GlobalFoundries fab has been constructed decades ago. Building something like this from scratch nowadays involves so much more paperwork than back then, it's a massive hurdle to overcome.
> As for medicine, the world's largest drug exporting countries are Germany, Switzerland, the US, and Ireland, more or less in that order
Finished medicine yes. But the precursors and "active pharmaceutical ingredients" (APIs)? 40% China, 20% India... and that's the total market share. For some ingredients, you got 95% (vit B) to 98% (Chloramphenicol) of the entire world's supply being made in China [1]. And of the APIs made in the EU or US, quite a lot depend on precursors made in India and China, or filler materials.
Medicine isn't about curing patients any more, it is about making money first and foremost, and that's why everyone and their dog went to India and China - India first because India is more cooperative with international audit teams than China is. And even then, there have been quite the amount of scandals [2][3][4].
(Side note re [4]: wtf is that banner "Democrats have shut down the government"?! Yes, everyone knows about the government shutdown, but ... isn't it illegal to blatantly engage in partisanship for government agencies?!)
> The thing is, the old GlobalFoundries fab has been constructed decades ago. Building something like this from scratch nowadays involves so much more paperwork than back then, it's a massive hurdle to overcome.
The big Bosch fab was built in 2021 (they previously had a smaller one, I think). The latest Intel fab in Ireland was finished in 2023.
I think you're, er, exaggerating this a little; Intel and GlobalFoundries both have large fabs in Europe. Given that Intel is going to be fabbing some nVidia chips, some of those will quite likely be made in their "Intel 4" (ie 7nm) fab in Ireland. And GlobalFoundries has a big (albeit older-tech) fab in Germany. Bosch also has a big 40nm fab in Germany for car stuff; old process, but high volume.
It's only fairly recently that the most advanced fabs have been outside the US or Europe; until late last decade the most advanced process was usually either made at Intel's Irish plant, or one of their US ones. And GlobalFoundries was also competitive at one time.
As for medicine, the world's largest drug exporting countries are Germany, Switzerland, the US, and Ireland, more or less in that order, though it shifts around a bit. Besides the US, _all_ of the top ten exporters are in the EU or EFTA. Germany is also one of the largest, if not the largest, exporters of medical _equipment_.