An overlooked reason Putin's want Ukraine
Excluding Russia’s gas reserves in Asia, Ukraine today holds the second biggest known gas reserves in Europe. As of late 2019, known Ukrainian reserves amounted to 1.09 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, second only to Norway’s known resources of 1.53 trillion cubic meters. Yet, these enormous reserves of energy remain largely untapped. Today, Ukraine has a low annual reserve usage rate of about 2 percent. Moreover, more active exploration may yield previously undiscovered gas fields, which would further increase the overall volume of Ukraine’s deposits.
https://hir.harvard.edu/ukraine-energy-reserves/
With Putin...it’s always about more money
= new reply since forum marked as read
A couple of times but haven't followed it up - until now.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, experts warn that the conflict could impact the global chip industry and exacerbate current chip shortages.
According to research firm Techcet, Ukraine supplies more than 90% of the U.S.’s semiconductor-grade neon, a gas integral to the lasers used in the chip-making process, while Russia supplies 35% of the U.S.’s palladium supply, a rare metal that can be used to create semiconductors.
While the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) argues “the semiconductor industry has a diverse set of key materials and gases, so we do not believe there are immediate supply disruption risks related to Russia and Ukraine,” the long-term impact of the conflict remains unclear.
https://venturebeat.com/2022/02/24/ukraine-supplies-90-percent-of-us-semiconductor-grade-neon-what-it-means-to-chip-supply-chain/
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said “the semiconductor industry has a diverse set of key materials and gases, so we do not believe there are immediate supply disruption risks related to Russia and Ukraine,” but the long-term impact of the war remains unclear.
If the conflict continues, it could place pressure on an already struggling supply chain as the demand for microchips has increased across the board. Companies are increasingly seeing a demand for AI used in machine learning training, and the market is predicted to grow at over 50 percent annually across all computing categories for the next few years.
https://truth11.com/2022/03/02/ukraine-supplies-90-percent-of-us-semiconductor-grade-neon/
TAIWAN—An escalated or prolonged conflict between Russia and Ukraine could negatively impact Ukraine's long-term ability to supply the raw material gases neon, argon, krypton, and xenon needed for semiconductor production, according to researchers at TrendForce. Ukraine supplies nearly 70 percent of the world’s neon gas capacity.
TrendForce notes that gas production line interruptions in Ukraine will not halt semiconductor production lines in the short term. However, the reduction in gas supply will likely lead to higher prices which may increase the cost of wafer production.
Inert gases are primarily used in semiconductor lithography processes. When the circuit feature size is reduced to below 220 nanometers, it begins to enter the territory of DUV (deep ultraviolet) light source excimer lasers. The wavelength of the DUV light generated by the energy beam advances circuit feature sizes to below 180 nanometers.
https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/96899-russia-ukraine-conflict-could-affect-semiconductor-gas-supply-long-term
There's plenty more where these came from. Looks like you've hit the nail on the head.
Can you imagine a world where the mad man controlled qll the chips?
Ty for posting all of this info! 