Episodi
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People have been so busy with AI data centers and surging memory prices that they forgot about the EU Chips Act. And to be honest, I did too until I traveled to Antwerp for ITF World 2026 and someone at the media session mentioned that a Chips Act 2 is coming.
But second breakfast so soon? In December 2025, the EU Court of Auditors released its special report on the first Chips Act. A quick read of this and other recent events says that Europe’s current chip policy must change. It is not working. In today’s video, a brief check-in on the EU Chips Act. -
We often associate Taiwan with chips. Taiwanese chips. It’s their thing right? But Taiwan’s strength is actually only in logic chips. In the industry’s other big sector, memory and DRAM memory in particular, Taiwan is second-tier. Hardly a player.
It’s not that the Taiwanese haven’t tried to break into DRAM before. In fact, they spent billions trying for two decades. They just keep losing at it over and over again. In this video, we look at Vanguard, TI-Acer, Taiwan Memory Corporation and Taiwan’s DRAM failure. -
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In 2010, the People’s Republic of China banned exports of rare earths to Japan due to a territorial dispute. After that, the Japanese government began developing alternate sources of rare earths - signing deals with Australia and Brazil. The most intriguing potential source however lies beneath the deep sea sediments surrounding a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In February 2026, the Japanese government reported the first successful test extraction of this deep sea mud, thousands of meters under the surface. In today’s video, a brief look at Japan’s rare earths island.
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It is one of Europe’s greatest technology startup stories. A young student in 1950s West Germany motorcycling across the country - offering companies a computer. That young student built an empire from scratch. One of Europe’s biggest, most famous computer companies. Then it all came tumbling down. In today’s video, one of Europe’s most well-known computer companies: Nixdorf Computer.
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In July 2025, Intel announced that they will be gradually closing their assembly and test site in Costa Rica. End of an era. Intel has been in Costa Rica for almost 30 years. That A&T factory was their only Latin American manufacturing site.
In 2000, nearly 40% of Costa Rica’s exports were Intel microprocessors. They were a chip export giant! (Kinda) In today’s video, let us look back at Intel’s tenure in Costa Rica. -
For the first few decades of its existence, all lasers were side-firing lasers - meaning the beam comes out of the wafer’s side. Horizontally. But in the late 1970s, a new type of semiconductor laser emerged. One that fired out of the wafer surface, vertically. Yes. It sounds a bit weird.
At first, nobody had any idea what to do with it. But over time, the technology has been adopted into a wide variety of everyday applications. Today, it literally shines into people’s faces. In today’s video, the little vertical lasers that everyone uses. -
In March 1982, General Motors announced a rapid and aggressive conversion to robotics. By 1990, GM wanted 14,000 robots in their factories doing everything from painting to welding to assembly. Nowadays, we dream of robots in the factories, doing everything end to end. In the dark. Lights out. Guess what, GM dreamed the same 40 years ago. And they spent an estimated $60 billion to try to make it reality. In today’s video, we look at General Motors and their dreams of the automated, all-robot factory.
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The first electricity systems were Direct Current. It worked, but there was a problem. DC didn’t transmit easy. Thus arose a new technology built around Alternating Current. AC. The two sides clashed briefly, but the winner was clear. AC won.
Sixty years later, a subsea power link to an island in Sweden transmitted a new message: DC was back. In today’s video, the rise, fall, and re-rise of DC power transmission. -
The machinist occupies a special place in industry. Using a set of mechanized tools, and drawing on years of experience and vibes, they take something from raw metal to finished form. Machining was part science, part magic. A respected craft that brought pride and a good living to its many practitioners.
Then in the 1950s, a revolutionary new technology sought to replace the machinist’s capabilities with a string of numbers. One Japanese company arose to take the fullest advantage of this trend. In today’s video, the rise of Numerical Control, CNC, and Fanuc. -
South Korean President Park Chung-hee believed that steel is national power. He wanted a huge integrated steel mill in South Korea. But the Western powers were skeptical. South Korea was extremely poor, without substantial iron reserves. Their workers, uneducated. For South Korea to go straight to what was then the most capital-intensive heavy industry was to defy economic orthodoxy. Too soon. Too inefficient.
But Park Chung-hee believed Korea needed steel. So he pushed his country to build one of the world’s most advanced steel companies. In today’s video, we go back to the world of steel and recount one of South Korea’s most iconic companies: POSCO. -
In June 1994, Intel and Hewlett-Packard - two of Silicon Valley’s largest and most powerful companies - announced an alliance. From the union of these two giants, will spring forth the next generation of CPUs. The Great Successor. Chosen to unify two architectures under one umbrella.
It was named Itanium and by 2002 Intel had spent $5 billion on it. In today’s video, we trace one of Intel’s most ambitious products. -
Nvidia’s Blackwell Ultra has 208 billion transistors across 2 dies. Those dies are made in a titanic fab. Using an intricate process with hundreds of steps, dealing in the dozens of nanometers. So dumb question: How do we know it all worked? How can we be sure that the thing being made actually does its job and not be “the other guy”? This is why the multi-billion dollar Automated Test Equipment or ATE industry exists. In today’s video, an underrated part of the semiconductor ecosystem.
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A gas turbine’s high pressure rotor takes on some of the most extreme temperatures in industry. And must do it for 100,000 operating hours. Right now, we are booked out of gas turbines for the rest of the decade. The shortage got me thinking about fan blades.
Today, modern gas turbine inlet temperatures can reach an infernal 1,600 degrees Celsius. That’s hotter than most lavas. What can handle such extreme conditions? Some of the most special metals you will ever see in your life. Metals tortured to survive things that regular metals never can. And it is still not enough. In today’s video, my friends, we study the blade. And the materials that make them. -
You are walking down an alleyway late one night, and suddenly behind you, a mysterious dark figure appears and says. Sir, I promise you a computer. A computer up to 20 times faster than what is on the market. You think. Well, what sort of unholy, insane 2-nanometer silicon will this computer be using? No, the dark figure replies. Ordinary hardware. Same as what everyone else is using. Maybe even a bit slower, clock time-wise. So what is the catch? If you accept this computer, then you must also accept some of the most brilliant but maniacal compiler software ever created. Oh. In today’s video, we trace a radical idea to a computer 10-30 times faster than anything thought possible. They said it was impossible. An intrepid platoon of geniuses proved them wrong.
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For over a hundred years, steam turbines have generated power using water and steam. Over the years, that steam got hotter and more pressurized. It made the turbines more efficient, but also made them big and complicated. Now here comes a different type of turbine. Radically smaller. Drastically simpler. These turbines have CO2 running through their veins instead of steam. In today’s video, supercritical carbon dioxide turbines. The waterless wonder that may be 10 times smaller than their counterparts.
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It used to be that if you wanted to get good audio on your computer, you had to get a sound card. And if you needed a sound card, there was just one choice: Sound Blaster. The company behind this iconic brand, Creative Labs or Technology, actually came from the city of the Merlion: Singapore. Their fortunes rose and fell with that of their most iconic product. In today’s video, a look at Singapore’s sound card tech hero.
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Mexico City is Mexico’s most important city. Today the greater metropolitan area is home to 23 million people, over 17% of the country’s entire population. Economically, it is the powerhouse - contributing a quarter of Mexico’s GDP. All of the biggest companies are based there. The place is also famously built on top of a lakebed. A sinking lakebed. Sinking maybe an overall average of 35 to 50 centimeters per year. In this video, we look at Mexico City’s land subsidence issues and how they came about.
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Lumentum makes lasers, fiber optics, and some other stuff. It has a wild history. During the peak of the telecom bubble, this company - with less than $2 billion in revenue - was worth more than GM and Ford combined. After it all came crashing down, the company languished in obscurity for over a decade. But now, thanks to the massive AI data center boom, it is SO back. In today’s video, the glorious rebirth of a fiber optic high-flyer. And why. I want to thank Irrational, author of the Irrational Analysis newsletter, for inspiring me to do this video and working with me on the AI and laser section.
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Ecuador is the world’s largest exporter of bananas - supplying 70 different countries and responsible for a third of global exports. In September 2025, they reported their first official case of Fusarium oxysporum, special form Cubense, Tropical Race 4. The modern banana plague. The Ecuadorean authorities rapidly quarantined the area, and so far it seems to have been contained to small regions. But the fungus has been spreading elsewhere. It has been wrecking havoc in Southeast Asia since it first emerged there in the late 1960s. And in 2019, it entered Latin America for the first time. First in Colombia and then Peru and then Venezuela. Fusarium is one of the most destructive plant diseases ever discovered. In today’s video, we discuss the Banana. Ever convenient. Ever delicious. Now in a slow-burn crisis.
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