Japan is hosting the Quad Leaders’ Summit meeting today. One agenda item will be to announce a concrete action plan under the Semiconductor Supply Chain Initiative, launched by the leaders of the four countries in their last meeting in September 2021. The goal of the initiative is to strengthen the global semiconductor supply chain’s productive capacity and resilience.
But as Stephen Ezell and his colleagues write inThe Times of India, through this initiative, the Quad officially recognizes that the semiconductor supply chain has geo-security consequences. The Semiconductor Industry Association—an industry body in the US—estimates that a typical semiconductor production process spans 4+ countries, 3+ trips around the globe, 25,000 miles and 12 days of travel. Given the hyper-global nature of this supply chain, no one country can become fully self-sufficient. For building a reliable, secure semiconductor supply chain, plurilateral partnerships are a necessity and not a choice.
