Mike Sheppard

But what was interesting yesterday, Kara, is that we get two very different versions of this phone call between the leaders of the world's two largest economies.

The first version came from Beijing.

The official state news agency, Xinhua, put out its version of the conversation, presenting it really as one centered on the question of Taiwan.

And then a few hours later, we heard from President Donald Trump himself on Truth Social posting that they had had a great conversation about issues including soybeans and other matters, rare earths and other key topics that were dear to the U.S.

president.

But he made no mention of Taiwan there.

Now, while he did not bring it up, several hours later, he did call the new prime minister of Japan, Sanai Takeuchi, who had enraged Beijing with comments a few weeks ago, you'll remember, Caro, saying that Japan would consider leaping to Taiwan's defense in the event that China were to try to take it.

Now, all of this has huge implications for the supply chain of semiconductors, as you noted, especially Taiwan Semiconductor.

It's one of the world's

largest producers of AI chips, and they are moving some of their production, as we know, to the U.S.

They've pledged $165 billion in investment in plants here in the United States, but they would still retain a significant amount of their capacity on the island.

Therefore, any question of Taiwan really does bring up tech issues for us.

Now, they are talking about a Manhattan Project-like effort in this executive order called Genesis that President Donald Trump signed yesterday.

But it was really more a call to action for various agencies to start working together more closely.

And that includes the Department of Energy and its national research laboratories.

But when we talk about Manhattan Project, though, we do need to remember that that effort took hours.

$36 billion in real dollars today from back then in the 1940s as the United States was in the race to develop a nuclear weapon ahead of the Axis powers.

This is a very different time.

We are not seeing new money being pledged toward this effort.

It's important to remember, Caro, though, that the U.S.