Semiconductors: dangerous bottleneck for • Table.Briefings

Putin’s war is driving American, European and Chinese chip production into a dangerous bottleneck: Ukraine supplies about half of the world’s neon. Even in China, the second-largest producer of neon, prices have risen 900 percent since the start of the war. Putin is now able to negotiate with the West: cutting-edge chips in exchange for neon.

It was no coincidence that the US government already warned its semiconductor industry to seek new sources for the gas neon on February 11, 14 days before Putin launched his war. Ukraine supplies about half of the world’s rare noble gas, which is used in the manufacturing of computer chips. And it even covers as much as 90 percent of US demand. So Putin’s war has exposed yet another major weakness of the West’s globalization.

Semiconductors: dangerous bottleneck for the noble gas neon

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