Comment by LeifCarrotson
5 days ago
I'm sure representatives of those countries love to say so, especially when talking to third parties about their expertise in manufacturing: "Yes, here in Zhengzhou, CN we're leaders in electronics manufacturing - the iPhone is assembled here at Foxconn!"
However, Apple (headquartered in the US) loves to issue press releases describing how their products are "Designed by Apple in California[, USA]" even though a lot of work in the manufacturing, the software, and the design of subcomponents (or major components, I don't know how Apple is organized internally) are done in China, India and Vietnam as you listed.
I'd argue that in the same way that Shenzen and Zhengzhou are leaders in electronics assembly because the bulk of the iPhone and other products are built there, regardless of the location of the headquarters of Apple, so to can London claim to be a leader in AI because the researchers for DeepMind are located in London, regardless of who owns the DeepMind brand.
Buying a thing from another country doesn't make your location a leader in that thing.
> "we're leaders in electronics manufacturing"
The UK wasn't claiming to be "leaders _in manufacturing_", they were claiming "international leadership in AI".
As I said elsewhere in the thread, citation needed...
What you're replying to is an analogy, that you seem to completely fail to understand.
Apple's manufacturers don't do any of the work on the software or design. They don't even manufacture the highest value-add components; those are mostly done in Taiwan and Korea.