Dan Lyons (yes, of fake steve jobs fame) asks a provocative question in his business week article: could silicon valley become the next detroit?
“… unless we boost government spending on science, technology, engineering and math—STEM, in industry jargon—we will be unable to keep up with countries like China and India. At some point, companies such as Apple, Cisco, HP, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle could be eclipsed by foreign rivals, just as Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have been.”
As someone who spent half his lifetime in india, and the other half in the silicon valley, I think this scenario is far fetched at least for quite sometime. I do think that US K12 education system needs to improve and more investments need to be made in science, technology, engineering and math. But college and post graduate education in the US is unrivaled in the world. Silicon valley has a unique ecosystem of big thinking entrepreneurs, culture of innovation, abundant supply of high end talent, great universities, and venture capital within driving distance that is hard to replicate in other places. Detroit is based on manufacturing that is much easier to replicate. I can not see anyone replicating apple. So no. Silicon valley will not be the bext detroit.
However I do think that you will see a lot more tech innovation from other places. This will happen whether US is investing more in high tech related fields or not. But this is not a zero sum game. World would be better for it.