South Korea this year unveiled plans for a $470 billion chipmaking hub.
$470 billion?!?!?!? What the actual fuck, how is a throwaway comment the first time I'm hearing about such a massive investment?
this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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It's actually not that high in the context of building fabs. New ones always cost hundreds of billions, and the margins tend to be pretty thin, so companies make money by selling large volumes. This is why US investments in trying to reshore chips are so laughable, this article is a great explanation of how the industry works https://compactmag.com/article/fighting-a-chip-war-on-the-cheap
what exactly is stopping ASML from raising prices on their machines by like 1000%, since they're the only ones making them?
I'm guessing the issue is that companies with fabs already have machines, and now they don't need more because demand for chips is down due to sanctions on China
ASML will be missing out on a lot of Chinese sales, this ought to hurt its R&D budget.
Hurt its R&D budget right when Chinese competitors are going to emerge from the woodwork to start eating at market share. I'd be curious to know how much of ASML's revenues come from orders of top of the line machines vs parts and services for older machines, or even new production of older machines