Uncle Sam courting Intel, TSMC to build advanced chip fabs on home soil – report
- Reference: 1589222229
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/11/us_chip_fabs/
- Source link:
According to [1]The Wall Street Journal , the Trump administration is also trying to convince Samsung to expand its existing facilities in Texas to encompass more sophisticated silicon.
Intel, for the most part, appears to be the most enthusiastic private sector participant, with Chipzilla CEO Bob Swan reportedly writing to the Department of Defense to say that it is "in the best interest of the United States and Intel" to explore new stateside fabrication facilities.
"We're very serious about this," said Greg Slater, Intel VP of Policy and Technical affairs, adding that any potential facilities would focus on providing advanced silicon to defence and commercial customers.
"We think it's a good opportunity," Slater told the paper. "The timing is better and the demand for this is greater than it has been in the past, even from the commercial side."
Meanwhile, TSMC remained coy, saying it was "evaluating all the suitable locations" but denying the existence of any "concrete plan". The WSJ, however, claims the firm is in talks with Apple, as well as the commerce and defence departments, to create new US-based factories.
For the most part, semiconductor manufacturing has proven fairly resilient to the ongoing trend of outsourcing, with wafers still being produced domestically, despite the growing clout of Asia in this sector.
Intel operates wafer fabrication facilities in four US states: Arizona, Massachusetts, Oregon, and New Mexico. This is in addition to sizable manufacturing sites in Israel, Ireland, and China. Further testing and assembly operations are performed within the US, as well as in China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Meanwhile, TSMC – which produces chips for the likes of Qualcomm, Apple, and AMD – has several fabrication facilities in Taiwan, with a handful of others based in the US, China, and Singapore.
Made in Taiwan
The over-reliance of TSMC on Taiwanese factories is a concern to US officials, the report claimed. The Mainland China government regards Taiwan as a renegade province – a byproduct of an unfinished civil war. It is presently only recognised by 14 UN member nations, with all other foreign relations performed through "representative offices" as a consequence of the mainland's "One China Policy".
Although cross-strait relations between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China are relatively cordial, there's always the potential for that to change – particularly if a future administration formally declares independence.
The return of high-tech manufacturing to American shores has long been a priority for the Trump administration, despite the lacklustre results.
In 2017, it [2]dangled generous subsidies and tax breaks under the nose of Taiwanese OEM Foxconn to coax it into building a factory that would employ 13,000 people. Construction, however, remains woefully behind schedule, and the promised jobs have yet to appear.
Separately, Donald Trump has lauded a "new" Apple factory in Texas, which has [3]assembled hardware for Cupertino since 2013 , the days of the Obama administration.
There is, therefore, substantial scepticism that any new semiconductor fabs will ever emerge. Even if they do, semiconductor manufacturing is a difficult business, with fabrication facilities both expensive and complicated to build. So it'll be some time before any new US-built chips start entering the wider ecosystem. ®
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[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-chip-makers-including-intel-seek-semiconductor-self-sufficiency-11589103002
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/18/wisconsin_3bn_foxconn/
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/us/politics/trump-texas-apple-factory.html
[4] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8553/legacy-modernization-finding-your-way-with-low-code?td=wptl1936
While I may sympathise with the official objective of removing reliance on China, I can’t help but wonder if many countries outside the USA currently feel a reliance on the USA is a better option?
Despite Trump and other issues, NATO countries and not only see USA a more reliable ally than China.
If Trump is not the exception but the new normal, such thought will need to be reviewed....
You can certainly find politicians and fanatics who say they don't, but in reality they all know they trust the US more than China, by a huge margin.
(Takes vacation to Disney World)
"We can't trust the US!"
(Flies to Boston for advanced medical procedure)
"Who knows what they'd do?"
(Checks NYSE on iPhone to see how their investments are doing)
No need to be a fanatic to have little trust in the US.
Look at the activities of the US against Huawei which seem to be caused by Huawei being cheaper and better than Cisco and not including any NSA backdoors. The threat of Huawei was not spying from China but the reduction in the ability of the NSA to spy on everyone.
Look at the US actions in the Middle East, Panama and other areas to see that the US is a country that believes in the use of force anytime that it thinks it can get away with it.
Look at the number of civilians that the US has killed in its wars in Vietnam and the Middle East (bombing a wedding party in Afghanistan being one example).
Because the cost of getting elected to Federal office (Congressman, Senator, President or Vice President) far outweighs the salary from the office, most such officials have to obtain the money from sponsors (by altering laws in their favor or by arranging contracts and grants to go to them).
The US has the best government that money can buy.
trust the US?
Why would we trust teh US government when i doubt most the US population trust them. The curent Administration is selfserving in the extreme and cares little about other countries and in pinch would stop exports of chips if it served its own intrest.
They should spread the sites globally so they do not rely on one pparicular region or state.
Er, Strategic Policy?
The sole reason why TSMC and it's Taiwanese peer companies are so good at semiconductor fabrication is because the Taiwanese quite rightly identified such expertise as being globally valuable and chose to become the best at it for geopolitical reasons. By being indispensable, no one (probably not even China) wants to upset the Taiwanese economy. Indeed, I recall years ago reading a column that reported that the Taiwanese self defence policy (publicly stated) was, "to blow up the semicon fabs the moment a Chinese solidier's boot sets foot on a Taiwanese beach".
I think it highly, highly unlikely that Taiwan is going to let that expertise go to the USA. Partly because the USA signed up to agreements regarding helping guarantee Taiwanese security but then failed to fulfill them (something about supplying diesel subs I remember).
Another country missing from this debate is Japan. Quite a lot of fab machinery is actually Japanese designed and manufactured. They may not be in the business of actually running large scale fabs, but I bet they could if they really wanted to. Given that Japan is another country recently to have become wary about the certainty of US security guarantees (Trump said "I'm bring the troops home, the Japanese have had free security for far too long", ignoring the fact that Japan pays for US forces to be based in their country), I can't see them being especially keen to let the US develop an independent domestic capability either.
It sounds like the US is saying, "give us something for free". I don't think it's going to be handed over on silver plate, wrapped in gift paper and tied up with a ribbon.
Re: Er, Strategic Policy?
Great comment. I hadn't considered that issue for either Taiwan or Japan.
Missed Opportunity
There was a short time under the Clinton administration when Russia was friendly with the United States under Boris Yeltsin, and China's sole nuclear-armed submarine was in port for repairs. But we missed the opportunity for a pre-emptive strike followed by regime change in China. Then, with the threat from China eliminated, Russia and India could have given up nuclear weapons - and Pakistan would no longer need them to keep up with India. The world would have been saved from the threat of nuclear war, with all nuclear weapons in the hands of responsible countries - the United States, Britain, and France - and there would no longer have been any threat against Taiwan.
And how long does it last?
When I bought my last phone (a Moto G), one of the decision points was the fact it was actually made in Ft Worth, Texas.
7 months after I bought it, that plant was shut down. So much for helping support "American made"
Also, wafer fabs are literally multi-billion dollar facilities now. If you can influence even 1/10th of a percent of that price, then you can have a say where it's built.