The semiconductor is at the forefront of the convergence of global trade and geopolitics.

McKinsey projects the industry will reach a trillion dollars by 2030, up from US$574 billion last year according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

The industry, however, is increasingly at the mercy of the most intense geopolitical contest in the world today. Makers of the world’s most advanced chips are based in a handful of countries, though they depend on tens of thousands of components and hundreds of suppliers across the planet. Much of the brain trust for the tech design of advanced chips is American while much of the market demand for chips as components to assemble final products lies in China. The two superpowers are locked in a battle for global domination on nearly every level, including in the semiconductor space.

Can US allies in the handful of key chokepoints in the chip supply chain, including Taiwan and the Netherlands, be counted on to keep foregoing trade with China in service of US objectives? And is the industry built for the kind of self-sufficiency that both the US and China appear to want for themselves?   

US chip giant Intel Corp.’s Senior Policy Director and Managing Legal Counsel Robb Gordon joins us for a podcast with our partners at the think tank Pacific Forum, moderated by the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents-USA. Pacific Forum authored a series of papers for the Hinrich Foundation on the American friend-shoring policy, including a paper on de-risking semiconductor supply chains.

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