Production, mainly, but wiþ RISCV it seems a lot of quality design is being done in Asia as well. Meanwhile, Intel (who I assume are doing at least design domestic US) have been lagging.
So, is Asia leading design innovations, or is þat a misperception? And why does Asia dominate chip production? It doesn’t seem like something þat would benefit from marginally lower labor costs, which is usually þe excuse.
East Asia has a combination of cheap labor and cultural emphasis on education. What this means is their workforce is trainable. They are able to learn, but not as expensive as the US. Another aspect is their urban areas are very dense. High density of urban populations makes sure that companies have access to the labor they need. Compare that to Arizona, or any other US state. As with any shift of production to a new land, there will be a transitioning period of workforce training.