Another option is being offered by SGS-Thomson Microelectronics Inc. The company, jointly controlled by France's state-owned Thomson SA and Italian state-owned Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale, or IRI, is seeking long-range strategic links with leading Asian makers by preaching technological independence from Japanese chip makers as a matter of economic survival. Meanwhile, SGS-Thomson is serving its own interests. With the huge Japanese chip market still largely closed, and now flat after a decade of dynamic growth, the world's 15th-biggest chip maker is looking to the rest of Asia to help lift its global market share to 5% from its current 3.5%. SGS-Thomson's top executives last month visited South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, trying to woo Japan's regional chip customers by playing on fears of a sudden cutoff in supply. "On the equipment side, Asians are competing with Japanese products," says Jean Philip Dauvin, SGS-Thomson's vice president for market analysis. "This will be a very strong fight in the next couple of years. More and more, market share will depend on availability of independent semiconductor sources. You can't win a war buying ammunition from the enemy."