Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan from Mac. On today's show, Silicon Valley's biggest fraud finally shuts its door and some questions about the rise of smart cities.

But first, making chips.

No, not the kind you eat, but the ones that run your smartphone and your laptop and your car and maybe your blender, the ones that are officially known as semiconductors.

So politicians constantly talk about how America has lost its manufacturing lead to other countries. That was a

centerpiece for President Trump, both to his 2016 campaign and a lot of his current trade policy.

But it turns out that chip making is still big business in the U.S. with around $44 billion

of semiconductors exported last year. That actually makes it our fourth largest import behind cars and

airplanes and refined oil. And moreover, it's not all centered in one state or one region. There are

about 80 manufacturing plants, also known as fabs, in 19 states right now, with plans to build more.

It's the sort of thing that should be celebrated and highlighted, but instead seems to be

ignored. Instead, when we hear elected officials talk about U.S. tech manufacturing, it's usually about

how to get Apple to make more iPhones here, or Dell to make more laptops here, both of which could be

important additions to our economy, but it's also worth remembering what we already have and why we have

it and how to keep it.

So our continued strength in domestic chip making is largely because U.S. players are too scared of intellectual property theft to move manufacturing to China.

And while China desperately wants its own domestic chip making base, even if it could design the chips, the manufacturing of them is extremely

difficult.

It takes highly skilled workers and it's a highly technical process.

So the bottom line is that many US chipmakers fear the current trade war with China could undermine this strength.

Not only because of tariffs, but also because it could cause China to put further pressure on them

to partner or perish via things like

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