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.
Interesting. Who were the three that met the lightning up close and personal?
“a long and complex supply chain is highly exposed to disruption.”
That is true and I almost wish for more disruptions to motivate us to make more of the stuff we buy.
>>After graduation, they are hired by a Party-run company which turns out a product with the cheapest materials possible, for the most profit possible, while still being able to pay the highest brides.
How does this differ from the US system where they are hired by a private equity run company which which turns out a product with the cheapest materials possible, for the most profit possible, while still being able to pay the highest private equity fees?
Except your analogue is false.
“Interesting. Who were the three that met the lightning up close and personal?”
Amnestynone
Timber Rattler (awww)
Uncle Lonny got a week to think about it.
1. EVs that meet domestic production standards are heavily subsidized by the U.S. government.
2. They are inferior to their non-EV counterparts by almost any measure that would be considered important by most U.S. consumers.
3. They are more expensive than their inferior counterparts.
4. The entire industry only exists because of laws and regulations that are designed to support these inferior products and drive the superior products out of existence.
I have no problem using tariffs to generate tax revenue and protect U.S. industries, but it's important that we don't end up protecting abject idiocy masquerading as sound economic policy. Item #4 is important. Protecting, promoting and subsidizing manufactured products that are a step backwards by almost every relevant measure is lunacy.
I think that guy is a union man, so he shows the same mindset, which is that as long as I have a job, what does it matter if the country gets destroyed around me?
“Texas Instruments selects Sherman for potential $30 billion semiconductor chipmaking campus”
Maybe what you said was true but now chip making companies in the US seem to be second in line for Government $$$ support for chip makers. L
Looks to me why some of their chip making was done overseas was because they bought out the companies that were actually owned by overseas companies like Spansio nand SMIC.
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