This project started as a broad look at both the semiconductor supply chain and global AI investment, but pretty early on I realized that was way too much to cover in the time I had. My initial research question was “What does the current global semiconductor supply chain look like, and how does AI investment vary across leading countries?”, but after getting feedback and digging into sources, I decided to narrow it down and focus on just the semiconductor supply chain.
I feel like the project answers that revised version really well. By analyzing actual trade flow data from Comtrade and Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance, I was able to see who the biggest players are and how trade is distributed. Countries like China, Malaysia, the U.S., Germany, and Taiwan show up repeatedly as core parts of the pipeline. The overlap between exporters and importers really highlights how dependent the whole system is on tight global coordination.
What I think the project adds is a clearer, more visual way to actually see those dependencies. Instead of just reading about policy or risk, the Tableau dashboard and web map will help people actually track how chips are moving between countries and why that matters.
Some questions that came up while working were: how can we better isolate semiconductor-specific data from places like Taiwan? And how will the supply chain shift over the next few years as countries invest more in reshoring? If I had more time, I’d want to bring back the AI angle more clearly or track this data across multiple years to see how much things really change over time.