by Peter Zeihan on January 31, 2023

An American, a Dutch, and a Japanese guy all walk into a bar…sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, right? Unfortunately for the Chinese, their semiconductors are on the shit end of this joke.

As the Japanese and Dutch join the US sanctions against Chinese Semiconductors, we find ourselves at a precarious crossroads. The semiconductor industry has long been the personification of globalization, with dozens of products crossing countless borders and supply chains longer than the DMV line. But what happens now?

China’s demography is collapsing, and its semiconductor industry isn’t far behind. So someone else will have to step up and start producing these semiconductors; all eyes are on the US, the Netherlands, and Japan. Although, we may have to put up with middle-of-the-road semiconductors for a while.