John Warner
Feb 5, 2021

This reminds me of the angst in the United States in the 1970s and 80s that the Japanese would beat us at semiconductors. The country created a semiconductor consortium to compete, Sematech. Austin, TX, won a nationwide contest for where to locate it. Sematech contributed mightily to making Austin the entrepreneurial city it is today. Replace semiconductors with batteries and rinse and repeat the same angst. Semiconductors and batteries are crucial for sure, but they are one component of a broader innovation ecosystem, whether it is microprocessors and personal computers, or electric and autonomous vehicles.

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John Warner
John Warner

Written by John Warner

Serial entrepreneur sharing 40 years of insights to control your destiny in our turbulent times

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Right John so who is going to be the Sematech — or the Morris Chang — of US batteries?

In a free market, it's impossible to know. The same could have been asked about personal computing in the 1970s. The "wise people" would never have picked Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.
There is an interesting story about industry co-opting government to…