It is evident that the United States is currently focusing its industrial efforts on chips and new energy, even introducing the CHIPS for America Act specifically for this purpose.

The U.S. even aims to develop its own capabilities while restricting related industries in other countries, going so far as to instigate a chip war. However, it now appears that all of America's strategic arrangements are facing the prospect of failure.

01. Industry growth is almost stagnant

Although there has been talk of a global chip shortage, the overall data indicates that the semiconductor industry's performance in 2022 was not impressive.

Under these circumstances, the U.S. has instigated a chip war, losing on the "favorable timing" front.

The semiconductor industry in 2022 was indeed expected to thrive, but it turned out that the year's development was not only not as good as imagined but was somewhat poor.

The global semiconductor revenue growth rate in 2022 was a meager 1.1%. The so-called chip shortage seems to be only partial and structural.

Initially, due to many factories not operating, there was a shortage of semiconductor equipment, factories could not deliver goods, and delivery times were extended. The prices for deliveries also rose with the scarcity of goods, directly leading to a reduction in the production of electronic devices in the terminal market.

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If the first half of the year was a problem on the supply side, the second half was a collapse on the market and demand side.

By the second half of 2022, the pressure of high inflation, coupled with rising interest rates and increased energy costs, led to a significant slowdown in global economic growth.02, Industry Titans See a Sharp Decline in Performance

In fact, the United States itself is partly to blame. Due to the continuous interest rate hikes in the U.S., the level of interest rates has been rising, causing many businesses to face increasingly high financial costs.

On the other hand, the persistent high inflation has led consumers to cut back on spending, resulting in a significant decrease in demand for digital products such as computers and smartphones.

Now, the performance of American industry giants has plummeted.

The weak demand in the downstream consumer market has directly affected the markets for mobile phones, computers, and memory devices, leading to a 12% decrease in Qualcomm's revenue for the first quarter of 2023.

However, this is already considered a relatively minor loss. In the chip industry, Intel saw a decline of over 30% in the fourth quarter of 2022, setting the worst record in nearly six years.

The most astonishing is Samsung, whose operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2022 fell by nearly 70% year-on-year. The sharp drop in memory chip prices, coupled with slow growth in smartphone shipments, has led to Samsung's performance decline.

Now, most companies have announced plans to reduce production and cut expenses.

03, Emptying TSMC? Huawei is More Needed

The main reasons for the decline in shipments of smartphones and personal computers are the decrease in consumer demand, economic uncertainty, and the economic pressure brought by inflation, which is simply too great.Most people might think that this is all due to the impact of the pandemic, but in reality, the pandemic is just adding insult to injury.

In such circumstances, the United States has also persuaded TSMC to relocate its entire production line, originally based in Taiwan, to the U.S., along with the company's mid-level managers and core engineers. It seems that the U.S. is hoping to completely empty TSMC.

However, it is quite evident that the demand in the United States is significantly decreasing, and the purchasing power is insufficient to support the development of the chip industry.

It is believed that in 2023 and the years following, there is no doubt that the best global economic development should be in China, with the Chinese market demonstrating strong consumer power.

No wonder the American giants Intel and Qualcomm have repeatedly expressed, both publicly and privately, that they need the Chinese market and orders from Huawei.

It appears that the United States has lost again in terms of "people's harmony."