> Company CEO Pat Gelsinger says semiconductor firms need subsidies to invest domestically — but there’s little guarantee the giveaway will actually help.
I mean, I don't think he's wrong. Who wrote the checks for TSMC? Who invested in Samsung's fabs, or Germany's domestic foundries? If the US wants to play ball in the semiconductor industry, they need the value proposition to be more attractive than the preexisting fabs.
Semiconductor industry needs to be put on notice for closing 780 plants in the US and moving overseas losing 150,000 jobs while taking $10B from the government.
They profited more than they are asking for over the last year alone and could fund this if they wanted to.
We should invest as a matter of national security, but we need to prevent history from repeating by addressing the situation that got us here at the same time. The Intel CEO is trying to extort us out of $76B without putting anything up and demanding that congress extend session to finish the bill, otherwise they won’t invest in their own home country. Do you think this flies elsewhere in the world? It’s not just the money from the state, it’s having a strong government instead of one writing corporate welfare checks for these giant corporations.
Sure, it's the norm elsewhere in the world. If the US doesn't invest in their infrastructure, private or otherwise, then they're going to watch their jobs shift overseas. Intel and AMD are perfectly contented to keep paying TSMC, Globalfoundries and Samsung's Korean fabs to do the grunt work. Like I said elsewhere, the real problem is that there's no value proposition in manufacturing domestic silicon. Without the ability to pay people under minimum wage, the American semiconductor industry will always be a sinking ship. The only solution is, like you said, treating this as a matter of national security if it's something we care about.
How much equity and control does China get for their investment in chip manufacturing? They use the “National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund” to fund these projects. Nobody is giving free gifts and they don’t allow companies to name prices or just walk away with money.
Intel could definitely build a foundry here, but it wouldn't be profitable in the slightest. Not only will you have to pay your workers $25+/hour, but materials processing and logistics will be more expensive than assembly in Shenzhen. The whole process is going to lose money, and if the government wants those jobs then they're going to have to make the prospect look enticing.
I reckon what Gelsinger is saying goes for AMD, too. They wouldn't make any more money running domestic fabs, and I reckon they don't have any for the same reason Intel doesn't.
nope, they’re pulling back and making this the reason why.
FTA:
>Intel is now holding that factory hostage. Last month, Intel canceled a groundbreaking ceremony for the Ohio plant, saying it was delaying construction due to Congress’s failure to pass the subsidies.
Bailouts amount to socializing losses while gains stay privatized, it's total bullshit. We can't even have socialized healthcare and universities, yet we piss money away on saving these corporations.
The only kind of bailouts I might be convinced to get behind is when it nationalizes the entity being bailed out. It's no longer a private sector corporation, it belongs to the nation because it was too big/important to allow cease to exist. Leadership replaced, it's now a government jobs program and profits get distributed as dividends to all citizens.
I mean, I don't think he's wrong. Who wrote the checks for TSMC? Who invested in Samsung's fabs, or Germany's domestic foundries? If the US wants to play ball in the semiconductor industry, they need the value proposition to be more attractive than the preexisting fabs.