Sept. 15, 2025 –
By Yu-Han Chang, EETimes Europe
From smartphones to generative AI, silicon chips power the technologies that shape modern life. Once seen as industrial components, semiconductors are now recognized as strategic assets, critical to national power and security, economic resilience, and technological sovereignty.
The Covid-era chip shortages exposed the fragility of a highly concentrated semiconductor supply chain, halting automotive production and rippling through other industries. At the same time, the explosive rise of AI has intensified a race among nations to secure access to advanced Si chips. In the U.S., a series of export controls has been enacted to block China’s progress in advanced Si chip manufacturing, underscoring semiconductors’ geopolitical weight.