Hacker News

Favorites Setup
Comment by deterministic | original | Why jet engines aren't made in China
[−]deterministic · 2026-07-02 Thu 05:51 UTC · link
Cherry-picking individual technologies (such as jet engines) doesn't really say much. You could argue that companies like ASML and Rolls-Royce (jet engines) are evidence that Europe knows how to innovate and the US doesn't. That Airbus overtaking Boeing in a market once completely dominated by Boeing shows the US has lost its edge. That the European-designed ARM architecture winning the mobile phone wars shows the US has lost its chip design advantage. And so on.

But there are obvious counterarguments if you cherry-pick technologies where the US currently leads — Google Search, AI, and so on.

So I would be really careful extracting any kind of simple "truth" from examples like these. Different countries have different advantages, and those advantages shift over time. That's it.