The world’s geopolitical heavyweights now regard microprocessors as powering not just all manner of machines but their economies as well. America is splurging $50bn in subsidies to bring chipmaking back home. Europe has similar plans, not least to reduce its dependence on Taiwan, which next-door China claims as part of its territory. From the 1970s until a few years ago Taiwan’s semiconductor sector looked worthy but dull. Its chip-fabrication plants (fabs for short) kept the global electronics industry ticking, but it was the gadgets the chips went into that made headlines. Do you think that Taiwan semiconductor supremacy is likely to fall due to the “war” with China ?