Now the world's two biggest economies are battling over another precious resource: semiconductors, the chips that literally power our daily life.And whoever controls the supply chains - a tangled network of companies and countries that make the chips - holds the key to being an unrivalled superpower.The market for "lagging edge" chips - which power the more mundane bits of our lives, such as microwaves, washing machines and refrigerators - is lucrative too.Last October, Washington announced sweeping export controls making it virtually impossible for companies to sell chips, chip-making equipment, and software containing US tech to China, no matter where they are based in the world.Micron, the largest US-based manufacturer of memory chips - essential for supercomputers, military hardware and any device that has a processor - has announced plans to spend up to $100bn over the next 20 years in a computer chip plant in upstate New York."