I see vaccine passports and COVID camps. Glass is half empty.
I can’t say for sure but, as someone who works in the industry. I think it’s likely related to shortages in availability of raw materials, natural or intentional (e.g. precious metals, silicon/sapphire, chemicals, gases, etc)
Maybe AJ had already paid good $ for them and the traffickers were caught trying to double cross him!
I work for a small R&D chip company. We worked on developing graphene for 2-3 years, finally giving up on it (out of contract $) late last year. We could grow graphene, but the problem was in separating the graphene from the substrate it was grown on. While we could technically do it, it was an arduous and inconsistent process. It just wasn’t feasible… the technology just isn’t there yet.
There are still plenty made here in the US, but the trend has definitely been chips made in China. Another thing to consider is Taiwan. Taiwan is a giant in the industry. Could Taiwan conflicts with China be problematic here? I’d say so.