• federal reverse@feddit.orgM
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    4 months ago

    Iirc: For certain materials like Lithium as well as Rare Earths, China basically has a monopoly on processing currently. E.g. with Lithium, Australia and Chile are major sources of the raw materials but virtually all of it is processed in China. Even if the raw materials come from the EU, there may be a major piece of the supply chain missing.

    • cows_are_underrated@feddit.org
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      4 months ago

      Okay, that’s fair. I’m not entirely sure but I know that Intel is building a processing plant in Germany. I don’t know if they use raw materials, or they also rely on other manufacturers to produce stuff for them.

      • federal reverse@feddit.orgM
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        4 months ago

        Chip plants are another matter yet again. They usually work with silicon wafers into which they a chip surface.

        I don’t know where Intel get their materials from either. The silicon processing industry is largely Chinese again—I think Western and Japanese countries do have the appropriate factories and technology too though.

        • cows_are_underrated@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          I just read, that TSMC also plans on creating a processing plant in Germany(near Dresden) so in the near future we might see chips made entirely in Europe.