One word in particular has stuck out to me this past week. It’s been in financial accounts, trading updates and casual conversation: uncertainty.
Alphawave, a London-listed electronics group that develops core technology for the semiconductor industry, recently released its annual results for 2024, in which it noted that due to “global uncertainty” and the “rapidly developing nature of the recently imposed tariff regimes”, it would not be posting guidance for its performance for this year or beyond.
It’s hardly a surprising admission. Few sectors within tech are as geopolitically charged as semiconductors – see Chris Miller’s Chip War for a detailed breakdown of why.
Alphawave has strong commercial ties across Asia – a requirement for any firm in the chip sector – including in China, the top target for Trump’s trade wars. …
