Monday, September 30, 2024

""Modern Economy Rests On Single Road" In North Carolina Where Hurricane Collapsed Bridges"

First up, the headliner from ZeroHedge, September 30:

In March, a Wharton professor who studies artificial intelligence and start-ups claimed on X, "The modern economy rests on a single road in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The road runs to the two mines that are the sole supplier of the quartz required to make the crucibles needed to refine silicon wafers." 

Ethan Mollick noted at the time, "There are no alternative sources known" if supply disruptions were seen in Spruce Pines.

Fast-forward to this past weekend across the Western North Carolina area, where a major disaster continues to unfold after tropical system Helene dumped torrential rains and unleashed devastating floods that pulverized entire towns, destroyed roads, highways, and bridges, and left tens of thousands without power.

....MUCH MORE

If interested in more background on the single point of failure, we happened to catch a March 29 story from the Raleigh NC News & Observer:

"The global semiconductor industry relies on a single NC mountain town"

I’m Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina. 

How strict is security at the Sibelco mine in Spruce Pine, North Carolina? In his 2023 book “Material World,” Ed Conway spoke to someone familiar with the site who said, “When contractors from other companies are brought in for repairs [at the plant] they are literally blindfolded and marched into the factory up to the machine they need to fix.”....

Re-referenced in August's "Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Sees Surging Demand for a Special Type of A.I. Hardware".

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