Posted on 07/12/2023 3:30:37 AM PDT by FarCenter
Contrary to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other high-tech nationalists’ wishes, the semiconductor industry is not migrating back to America any time soon.
On the contrary, the globalization of production capacity and new technology development is accelerating away from the US. Ironically, Biden administration subsidies for establishing semi-conductor factories in the US and export restrictions on high-end chips and chip-making equipment are helping to drive the process – and not just in China.
Last February 23, Raimondo delivered an impassioned speech to students at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, at which she said:
I want the United States to be the only country in the world where every company capable of producing leading-edge chips will have a significant R&D and high-volume manufacturing presence…. It is America’s obligation to lead. We must push like no time before.
That is an ambitious goal, to say the least, but the reality is Europe, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan want to keep their leading-edge technologies at home; China must develop its own, in the face of US sanctions; and, in some cases, establishing a manufacturing presence in the US just doesn’t make economic or commercial sense.
Logistically, why should Sony make image sensors in the US for cell phones that are assembled in Asia? Why should Samsung Electronics make memory chips in the US when it has the world’s greatest economies of scale in South Korea?
Samsung is building a new logic integrated circuit (IC) contract manufacturing facility in Taylor, Texas. The project is now about 50% over budget due to construction cost inflation, according to reports.
On July 7, the European Union and the government of Flanders announced a 1.5 billion euro (US$1.65 billion) investment in the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (imec), headquartered in Belgium.
On June 28, imex and ASML announced joint plans “to intensify their collaboration in the next phase of developing a state-of-the-art high-numerical aperture (High-NA) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography pilot line at imec.”
“This groundbreaking new high-NA technology is crucial for developing high-performance energy-efficient chips, such as next-generation AI systems… Significant investments are needed to secure industry-broad access to high-NA EUV lithography beyond 2025 and retain the related advanced node process R&D capabilities in Europe,” they said.
Imec is a world-leading R&D center for the semiconductor industry. ASML, headquartered in the Netherlands, dominates the global market for semiconductor lithography equipment and has a monopoly on leading-edge EUV lithography. It assembles its lithography systems in Veldhoven in the Netherlands using components sourced in Europe, the US and Taiwan.
.
A big fat tariff will bring back ALL industry to the USA.
Intel is building a 20 billion dollar chip factory in ohio.
The U.S. simply isn’t the dominant market it used to be for industries that use semiconductors and other advanced technology. Joe Biden is a perfect national representative of a fading, decrepit, broken-down country.
Micron is getting one mother of a taxpayer funded bribe to build on in Syracuse, NY.
3 bil.
Makes too much sense, it will never happen.
Tariffs are THE only thing that will save the USA. The only thing. You globullists can all ....
Yes, because China is really pro God…
God gave us brains, use them.
TSMC is building in Arizona.
The American worker will take back power one way or the other. The way the right plays the globullist game ( global wage arbitration ) which also feeds into the left wing power grab then it seems there will be a Marxist revolution. Too bad. Good by freedom.
A uniform tariff is non political.
Meanwhile, Intel, an enthusiastic recipient of the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act subsidies, has tellingly announced plans to invest more money outside the US than inside. Its new factory investments include:
- $20 billion in Arizona
- $2+ billion in Ohio
- More than 30 billion euros ($33+ billion) for new wafer processing facilities in Germany, plus up to $4.6 billion for assembly and test facilities in Poland
- $25 billion in Israel – more than the $17 billion Intel has invested there since 1974
Should be - $20+ billion in Ohio.
Raimondo also tellingly said in her speech, “If we don’t invest in America’s manufacturing workforce, it doesn’t matter how much we spend. We will not succeed.”
That is probably correct given that China graduates several times more engineers than the US and that both East Asian and European schools are arguably more rigorous. Some studies conclude that American students are more knowledgeable but they are outnumbered many times over by students in other countries with high-tech ambitions.
Perhaps, but only if America is deregulated to allow for extraction and manufacturing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.