Some feature more than 50 billion tiny transistors that are 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. They are made on gigantic, ultraclean factory room floors that can be seven stories tall and run the length of four football fields.
Microchips are in many ways the lifeblood of the modern economy. They power computers, smartphones, cars, appliances and scores of other electronics. But the world’s demand for them has surged since the pandemic, which also caused supply-chain disruptions, resulting in a global shortage.
That, in turn, is fueling inflation and raising alarms in the United States that the nation is becoming too dependent on chips made abroad. The U.S. accounts for only about 12% of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity; more than 90% of the most advanced chips come from Taiwan.