Advanced technologies such as 5G and modern AI/ML are driving demand for semiconductors and attracting new investors into the industry, including specialized start-ups, as well as operators or vendors that are keen to control their chip designs and supply chains. The disruption to availability of chips sparked by the pandemic has come at a time of intensifying demand, creating shortages and intensifying the desire of many hi-tech players to be more self-reliant. That desire is most clearly seen in China, which is chasing national hi-tech self-sufficiency as Huawei seeks to compensate for loss of access to US technologies; and in the USA itself, which aims to bolster its own semiconductor strengths to keep it ahead of China in the…