Can npm use the same module for different projects?

Question

Node.js

I type npm install all the time for the same modules. Some kind of react react-dom axios etc.
Can npm store them centrally on the local machine?
What is in node_modules? Another clone of the same files or some kind of symlinks?
If a clone - is there a symlink mode or any other mechanism not to unload the same versions of the same packages tens and hundreds of times?

Answer 1

Found the answer.
npm is not optimized by default in the sense that the question was asked about.
yarn - caches packages, but still copies them every time spawning pnpm copies
- solves the problem. And caches and thanks to hardlinks does not produce clones. ( https://pnpm.js.org)