In a World Awash in Data, Geopolitics Is All About Chips
Semiconductors have become the center of a fight between superpowers—and tensions can easily escalate further.
In 2022 the whole world seemed to wake up to the idea that semiconductors, rather than data, are the new oil. A confluence of factors—from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the fallout from Covid‑19—has turned a thesis into a widely accepted doctrine that’s spurring almost $100 billion in new state investment.
Unlike oil, data is remarkably plentiful and cheap. The real value resides in the ability to process and understand it, so chips are essential. The pandemic made much of the world realize quite how difficult life would be without them. You probably know the backstory by now: Anticipating a slowdown in customer demand in 2020, carmakers and other companies canceled many of their orders for the chips that would go into their vehicles and other products. Consumer-electronics companies swooped in and gobbled up much of the unwanted supply. Then, when demand unexpectedly resumed, the carmakers couldn’t get the components they needed. And other supply chain disruptions made the matter worse.