Does Britain’s semiconductor industry risk being left behind? - BBC Newsnight

A legal battle is raging over the future of a factory in Newport, Wales, which mass produces technological components called semiconductors.
The Government has ordered its Dutch owners, Nexperia, to sell it under national security laws because they're owned, in turn, by a Chinese company.
The Foreign Secretary's said that it's not in the UK's interests to pull the shutters down on the relationship with China. But the decision could mean the factory’s closure, at the cost of some 500 high paying jobs.
Meanwhile the Government has this week again postponed the publication of its long-promised and long awaited national semiconductor strategy.
That comes as the EU and the US are pushing ahead with their own subsidy schemes for this technology which will likely shape our everyday lives and economic fortunes in the decades to come. Is the UK at risk of being left behind? Newsnight’s Economics Editor Ben Chu reports.
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[@johnvaleanbaily246]

Why not ?! Every other British industry has been left behind. Car, Aerospace, Military, Computer, Nuclear, the list just goes on... as for semi-conductor industry... what semi-conductor industry ?

[@Steve-fv3pb]

We as a country should be protecting this industry and protect them from takeovers from anybody. Why the hell was a Chinese company allowed to get involved with this company.

[@erikschmidt476]

Like it says in the video. UK investors don't like to invest and definitely don't pay competitive salaries!

[@TheWebstaff]

@@erikschmidt476 "loss making" is not a word investors want to hear.

[@jamescaley9942]

It was owned by a US company then it was taken over by a Germany competitor which off loaded it minus the IP. That is like ripping out a healthy heart and saying it is unviable as it is starved of blood and oxygen. Rather than syphoning off IP to China, the latest owners bought IP to it to make it viable. If the UK doesn't want foreign investment, make a law agaisnt it. But don't make up some retrospective BS about "national security" over products that go into kettles.

[@chillxxx241]

China will overpay for businesses so they can gain access to markets surreptitiously or steal critical technology.

[@marvintpandroid2213]

A country like the UK can not make chips that make profit, we can make 30 year old stuff like this but if you don't have mega scale then you will never make a profit.

[@RealUlrichLeland]

The world leader in semiconductors is Taiwan, a much smaller country than the UK. If we get ahead of the curve on a new technology it's not impossible a similar industry could develop around the UK

[@marvintpandroid2213]

@@RealUlrichLeland Yes, and why is it that they are world leading? www.youtube.com/@Asianometry Take a while to learn what government support really looks like.

[@apb2081]

@@RealUlrichLeland Chances of Jeremy Hunt's ambition to make UK next Silicon Valley dismissed as “zero” by tech guru Herman Hauser. Brexit isolated the uk

[@RobespierreThePoof]

​@@marvintpandroid2213 If government support is the driving factor in Taiwan''s case, then why does your original content reference scale?

[@marvintpandroid2213]

@@RobespierreThePoof Can I introduce you to the Tory government, they have 18 months to go before they become a distant memory and are going to be replaced. The Tories have no reason to spend the tens of billions needed to build a serious chip manufacturing industry and the market aren't going to do it... because the market would have done it by now. Again, I would recommend you watch some of the videos on the channel I linked, put some work in to find out why things happened like they did n the past.

[@karannchew2534]

It's not just the semicon industry left behind.

[@keirenle]

I did not know that UK has a semi conductor industry 😄.

[@vrclckd-zz3pv]

Siemens built a £1 billion fab in North Tyneside back in 1995 but as usual the Tories screwed us. They love giving tax breaks to companies but never when it benefits the north. John Major never had a modem.

[@TheWebstaff]

Yeah and we do a lot of design ARM Holdings for example. But we don't grow it, so its slowly vanishing like most industries.

[@zoperxplex]

It doesn't. It is only the illusion of a semiconductor industry because the industry is under the control of foreigners.

[@deusmachinima1189]

@@TheWebstaff You'll be insignificant in a decade or two. Back to nobody England.

[@EliF-ge5bu]

I was here to make the same comment, you beat me to it. When someone speaks of a semiconductor industry, the UK does not really ring a bell.

[@hz8873]

Give more the relating courses University offers to home students first. Learning making semiconductors need time, hard working, and solid foundation on STEM.

[@vrclckd-zz3pv]

We have excellent STEM courses at universities. The UK has 3 of the world top 11 universities for Computer Science and Oxford and Cambridge usually switch places for the number 1 spot. I'm not sure about Chemistry or Electrical Engineering but I imagine it's a similar story. The issue is we have too many polytechnics masquerading as universities and it confuses the kids coming out of highschool who don't know the difference. We should undo the renaming of Polys to Universities and educate kids on the difference and how vastly different their career paths will be if they go into a real university as opposed to a dressed up polytechnic.

[@skymanifest8339]

​@@vrclckd-zz3pv Oxbridge is more concerned about educating foreigners. Like all liberal establishments in the UK, phoney universalism and money-making take precedent over educating native British citizens.

[@vrclckd-zz3pv]

@@skymanifest8339 You have no idea what you're talking about. It takes an immense amount of money to run an institution doing cutting edge research like Oxford or Cambridge and since the government refuses to lift the £9,250 fee cap for British nationals the only way places like Oxbridge can afford to run their research is if they take in a ton of international students (who have no laws dictating an upper cap to how much they can be charged) and then charge them 4-5 times as much to make up for the loss the universities are taking by educating brits for only 9K a year. If you don't like that, blame the Tories not the universities. They are the ones with the power to lift the price cap. Universities are legally required to charge no more than 9K for brits even if it means operating at a loss.

[@landamalome2077]

​@@skymanifest8339 typical entitled spoilt brit. Why not look up the ridiculous amount foreigners pay. They pay 3 times what you lazy brits are paying and yet, your people refuse to study stem courses. Britain was never a country of brain and talents. As soon as the savage British empire declined, so did every other thing about britiain. You guys cannot compete with others on a level playing field.

[@MH-pz8wf]

Where are the riches and brightest in UK to invest its own semi technology to the next gen or broaden its scope? The Semi manufacturing business is a very heavy capital demanding industry, (multi-billions), and highly cyclical. Therefore very risky investment. the gov't needs to step up to ensure its survival and keep-up. That's why US needs the CHIP act knowing capitalists are greedy and short-sighted.

[@TheWebstaff]

"loss making" And we don't do long term anymore, got to be now now now, no time to turn it around.

[@EliF-ge5bu]

You mean the US is putting legislation and its fiscal power to protect an industry it dominates? What is wrong with that, after all this is an industry that is invented in and revolutionized in the US. In the UK however, semiconductor is just a fringe industry, not a lot of people would think that the UK even has a semiconductor industry,

[@MH-pz8wf]

@@EliF-ge5bu Same was Taiwan 30 years ago. US high tech semi corps and investors, e.g. intel, avoided all the capital intensive semi manufacturing and focus on chip design by outsourcing. Even to this day, w/o gov't chip act, no US semi would want to manufacture chips in US. Understandably so, except now the US gov't realizes that this carries a high supply chain dependence risk

[@EliF-ge5bu]

@@MH-pz8wf Wrong: 12% of total manufacturing output comes from the US. Those companies moved because labor and land was significantly cheaper, and the US government has encouraged such moved when they gave China the “most favored nation” status. The world has changed since then, and the US now wants all of those companies back onshore or on friendly nation territories. While only 12% of total semiconductor manufacturing output is from the US as mentioned earlier, US-based companies actually produce 43% of the total global output. With the fiscal incentives brought by the CHIPS Act which is at the federal level, and generous tax breaks at the state level, the US can easily lure those companies back. In fact, during the past 15 months several high capacity chip new factories in the US have been announced by IBM, Micron, Samsung, Intel, TSMC, Qualcomm, among others. The US also wants to create a National Semiconductor Technology Center envisioned under the CHIPS Act which will pursue collaboration among US-based companies.

[@willberry6434]

Risk? It’s already been left behind. Taiwan, the U.S and South korea are light years ahead

[@KingFinnch]

Germany makes all the chip fabrication machines, and Taiwan just provided massive subsidies. The UK could easily come out with a plan along the lines of "0% tax on any chip fabrication company in the UK for the first 20 years, and the government will pay for the fabrication machines" and we'd be on top in 5 years

[@Erika-mx2vj]

@@KingFinnch Do you mean the Netherlands? ASML's machines are the only ones used in *advanced* chip fabrication.

[@TheWebstaff]

Will. There is more than one type of IC. Your thinking of transistor IC's not the vast amount of other IC that exist.

[@tsuchan]

I love it when chickens come home to roost.

[@myin680]

Not only UK semiconductor industry but also UK semiconductor R&D are being left behind USA, Germany, and East Asia.

[@djtomoy]

Not heard the words “Newport” and “fab” used together for a while

[@JHatLpool]

The UK made a conscious decision in the late 1980s, under one of the Thatcher governments, to get out of semiconductor manufacturing. The fact that it required too much investment was the excuse that I heard at the time. Indeed, the decision was the result of what to do with a government stake in a company called 'Inmos' who were the original occupiers of that Newport Wafer Fab site. The semiconductor industry is a U. S. dominated industry and everybody else must play catch-up. It requires such major investment that a country must have it as part of its' industrial policy. Germany (France and the Netherlands, also) has invested in semiconductors over a number of decades and now the investment by Germany is really paying off with both home-grown and U. S. companies continuing to invest and develop. So, if you want to succeed in anything, copy what Germany does.

[@kathev9050]

Short answer, yes.

[@yongchen8204]

Britain's semiconductor market is too small to afford a multibillions dollars semiconductor foundary. it just does not make any economic sense for such huge investment.

[@richiesd1]

Let them try and learn their lesson. When people say they can do something, I say “all that more power to you. If you don’t try, you don’t know for sure”.

[@TheWebstaff]

It can if it specialises in one area. Do you have any idea how many different types of chips there are and how many different ways there are to make them. The power IC mentioned here are not the same as the compute IC most people think of when taking about chips being made.

[@turboedsloth2000]

All we can do now is hope common sense prevails and not greed! Because the outcome is to sketchy!

[@Andrew-rc3vh]

Work the pits - proles! (message from your government).

[@apb2081]

there are only 3 main semi conductors blocks in the world USA EU and China, brexit left us out, brexit not going well

[@JohnSmith-fz1wh]

Nothing to do with Brexit.

[@apb2081]

@@JohnSmith-fz1wh Herman Hauser tech guru has just said that the uk will never become the next silicon valley because of brexit.

[@JohnSmith-fz1wh]

@@apb2081 So you believe nazis who hate the Uk? Are you a supporter of the EU nazis?

[@Lando-kx6so]

​@@apb2081 the UK is far ahead of any other European country in terms of tech, startups, & unicorn companies & is growing more & more every year. Brexit isn't stopping anything & brexit doesn't mean no working with the EU, the UK will kost likely get into Horizon Europe as well

[@thepatriot4076]

@@JohnSmith-fz1wh is that what Nigel and Jacob Ress-Mogg told you 😂😂😂

[@wendywolfman]

Foreign owned of course.

[@blackmage4100]

Semiconductor R&D is a multi-billion dollar investment. I wonder if Britain has the financial reserves to go it alone. Much better if Britain do this as part of an EU initiative. Oh wait ...... 🤣

[@the.real.a-volpe]

Brexsh,it was a joke

[@antwandarellefenton]

🤔🤔🤔

[@QuietJagung]

UK has semiconductor fab? Chinese own. I see.

[@mattayele1906]

The US and China eating UKs lunch 😅

[@tsuchan]

And Europe. Except that it ain't the UK's lunch... they just thought it was.

[@hassyg4083]

sad UK sold Arm not its stuff are being used in alot of American products

[@jacksteven781]

Britain’s semiconductor industry? Never heard of it

[@TheWebstaff]

And yet your probably using one right now in your phone designed by ARM Holdings. Take the blinkers of Jack and open your eyes.. The world is all around you.

[@ANO-.-NYM]

The UK has a semiconductor industry?

[@normanhull6696]

We have a semiconductor industry?

[@nazirngah]

UK !!!???😢

[@lonelylovely1176]

That should better be called fish and chips industry

[@gargamelandrudmila8078]

What semiconductor industry 😂😂😂😂. This power semiconductors is such a small scale relative to the main markets it is ridiculous. China must not get its hands on UK IP, they don't want the UK workers, the plant will be closed anyways. The management team don't have a clue.

[@lonelylovely1176]

We need full conducters , semi not enough

[@jacksteven781]

Full conductors are not even enough nowadays. We need semifull conductors

[@skymanifest8339]

Wow, a story about Britian on the BBC! Makes a change from the usual stories about minor events taking place in India.

[@davidedbrooke9324]

We have arm, a U.K. company that could use a good quality chip maker.

[@PaulGrayUK]

we sold that to china.

[@willberry6434]

Arm doesn’t manufacture anything. Just i.p

[@davidedbrooke9324]

@@willberry6434 yes I realise that could they use a manufacturing base to suit their software though?

[@PaulGrayUK]

@@willberry6434 Was still let go. Inmos, remember them, or ICL, probably not.

[@jonnoMoto]

@@davidedbrooke9324 it's a woefully inadequate fab process. Nexperia only make jellybean stuff

[@AeroJules]

Ha ha.. What a clickbait!! Ofcourse... It is already behind 5 years the tech that is in Taiwan... And now with Brexit, it will be even harder as we europeans do not want expensive British components, that are 5 years old.

[@TheWebstaff]

Taiwan doesn't make these sorts of power IC, they focus on transistor logic IC's. So when you say 5 years behind, do you mean walking in the other direction.

[@marktrinidad7650]

Not left behind. The British are the best in the world when they focus on something. More like the world would be left behind.

[@tsuchan]

You keep telling yourself that.

[@erenyaeger9407]

no way

[@deusmachinima1189]

Keep telling yourself that. You do not even have a functional space program meanwhile India does. Inferior Brits 🤣

[@muckraker7942]

Evaerything in Britain will be left behind. That’s what happens when you shut it all down to “save the NHS”.

[@apb2081]

Chances of Jeremy Hunt's ambition to make UK next Silicon Valley dismissed as “zero” by tech guru Herman Hauser. Brexit isolated the uk

[@Bungle-UK]

Not underpaid….can’t manage their money

[@angrygromit93]

@@Bungle-UK crass

[@JohnSmith-fz1wh]

While the NHS murdered thousands of elderly people.

[@muckraker7942]

@LaMelo Ball It’s really very simple. We needed to rely on NHS workers desperately during Covid. They perceived that while people were sitting at home getting 80%, they were at work. Even before it was over, they were grousing about getting paid for their efforts. NHS workers are nothing more than greedy opportunists. They don’t do a particularly good job. The NHS has received more money every year and particularly more since 2010. You can blame it on the Tories but that dog won’t hunt. Whether they realize it or not, the NHS workers have guaranteed their own demise. They can soon find work in the private healthcare sector but they make people work. Or they can stay with the NHS which will be nothing more than the lowest care available for the lowest strata of society aka the 50% of the population that don’t pay taxes.

[@kflee2008]

So sad that UK is so far behind and yet you are saying UK a genuine leader ? China is also way behind and your reporter does not seem to understand anything about this industry!!! For semiconductor design US is the place and for mass production, Taiwan and Korea dominate the world, just for your basic information.

[@Simon-hy2fh]

There's semiconductor industry in Britain?

[@TheWebstaff]

Yes, there is also many types of IC so don't be so surprised.

[@notjustforhackers4252]

Don't care, it's not British owned.

[@apb2081]

Chances of Jeremy Hunt's ambition to make UK next Silicon Valley dismissed as “zero” by tech guru Herman Hauser. Brexit isolated the uk

[@JohnSmith-fz1wh]

@@apb2081 Hunt is an EU globalist like you.

[@lairddougal3833]

In its atavistic ‘brilliance’ the UK cut itself off from the critical mass of scientific and space research that exists in it neighbouring superpower. This was one of the less discussed, but still predicted, outcomes of Brexit. Sure, the UK is investing in these areas, but it is a drop in the bucket against what the Europeans are doing. It has also, oh so cleverly, cut the next generation of young scientists out of the mix. The very best that the UK can hope for is to be an also ran - and a very distant also ran at that. As a nominal Brit, permanently resident offshore, I continue to be gobsmacked and distressed by the comprehensive stupidity of Brexit. There was zero reason behind it. Appeals to xenophobia, the abiding if tacit ‘English’ sense of inferiority were emotional levers so easily pulled by opportunists like Farage and Johnson, and by cultists like those prize oafs, Bone and Rees-Mogg. The Brexiteers can talk sovereignty and self determination, but the reality is the UK has lost both. The sooner opposition parties bite the bullet and declare - at a minimum - a second referendum, the better. That won’t happen because of the usual political cowardice and/or until the UK has its overweening arrogance kicked out of it. Bone et al hope that when the purported benefits of Brexit are realised in 35 years, people will have forgotten what being a critical part of a major super power was like.

[@Lando-kx6so]

You know the UK can will most likely get into Horizon Europe right?

[@JHatLpool]

Very well said.

[@WellOilBeefHooked]

BBC News?

[@CouchCoop128]

Elon Musk says he was forced to buy Twitter for legal reasons- BBC News, 🤣aaahhhhh you guys, I think its going to be a long year for legacy media

[@apb2081]

elon musk invested in germany EU instead of the uk because of brexit

[@CouchCoop128]

@@apb2081 ok, not sure what that's got to with the Grand Arbiter

[@JA-pn4ji]

@@apb2081 TSMC is mulling an investment in the EU and could have been attracted to the UK, but the fools voted for Brexit.

[@hmq9052]

Wales 🤦 The land of Brexit

[@DirtySaltyBug]

So in line with British tradition, the business was going bust. The Government, in keeping with it's anti-China stance would rather see it all fail.

[@mohmmedshahrukh8450]

not only semi conductor , whole country future is in Dark under your accidental prime minister.

[@nutzeeer]

britain has a chip industry?

[@smithanvil-yb7xl]

Thank you for the gift of life and Blessings upon me and my family $32,000 weekly profit our lord Jesus have lifted up my life!!!🙏❤️❤️

[@peterbarton9856]

Piss off, scammer

[@Ligma-Balls-69]

I lost my 4skin!

[@andria12]

Jesus Christ called people everywhere to repent, so if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe with all your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved and inherit the kingdom of heaven and eternal life. To this, people would accept Jesus Christ in life in their hearts and told other people how Good he is, how he saves, heals and frees and gives eternal life for freе 92

[@andyc27]

Verily I say unto thee I am a European that am born in Britain

[@Jen-Yueh_Hu]

Big Hero Six has the solution already. If everybody knows how to make silicon chips at home, there would be no technology worth stealing. No competition. Problem solved. And to be honest, it isn't even that far-fetched. Making a chip is like making a cake. You buy some equipment, throw ingredients in, make some patterns, bake at different temperatures, assemble the pieces.

[@OkalaborationO]

😅😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@KingFinnch]

apart from the laser guided single atoms and tens of millions of £ for the focals per machine and the clean rooms and a single machine costing well over a billion £

[@TheWebstaff]

@@KingFinnch You need to go to hack a day blogs. Yeah we can't do >100 nano meters but you'd be surprised what you can do at home.