Sunday, May 10th 2020
U.S. Government in Talks with Intel to Build Processor Factories on Home Soil
The United States government is close to finalizing a plan rivaling China's for semiconductor manufacturing self-sufficiency. It calls for U.S. semiconductor companies, such as Intel, to manufacture high-technology products "securely" at facilities on U.S. soil, so that the U.S. market is unaffected by disruptions to multi-national supply chains brought about by global-scale events (such as the COVID-19 crisis).
Some, such as The Verge's T.C. Sottek point this out to be a de-globalization strategy. Excerpts of one such communication between Intel CEO Bob Swan and the U.S. Department of Defense, dated April 28, was posted by WSJ, where he is quoted saying that exploring a commercial chip foundry on U.S. soil was "it is in the best interest of the United States and of Intel." The last major chipmaker that attempted U.S.-made chips was AMD, by tapping into GlobalFoundries' Upstate NY-based 14 nm-class FinFET nodes to make its 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen processors. AMD had to seek out TSMC as GloFo gave up its 7 nm-class transition plans, forcing AMD to modify its wafer supply agreement. The company now only manufactures older-gen "Picasso," "Polaris 30," and I/O dies for the latest Ryzen and EPYC processors there.
Sources:
Wall Street Jounal, The Verge
Some, such as The Verge's T.C. Sottek point this out to be a de-globalization strategy. Excerpts of one such communication between Intel CEO Bob Swan and the U.S. Department of Defense, dated April 28, was posted by WSJ, where he is quoted saying that exploring a commercial chip foundry on U.S. soil was "it is in the best interest of the United States and of Intel." The last major chipmaker that attempted U.S.-made chips was AMD, by tapping into GlobalFoundries' Upstate NY-based 14 nm-class FinFET nodes to make its 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen processors. AMD had to seek out TSMC as GloFo gave up its 7 nm-class transition plans, forcing AMD to modify its wafer supply agreement. The company now only manufactures older-gen "Picasso," "Polaris 30," and I/O dies for the latest Ryzen and EPYC processors there.
39 Comments on U.S. Government in Talks with Intel to Build Processor Factories on Home Soil
Plenty of foundries in the US. To list a few, Infineon (several), Qorvo, obviously Intel (serveral), NXP (serveral), Microchip, Skyworks, Analog Devices (several), On Semi, GM, TI, Cypress, Micron and even Samsung, Renesas and TSMC, although they're obviously not US companies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabrication_plants
stealingdeveloping the IP.I'm not sure how exactly this will reduce dependence on the global supply chain, though. It's not the wafers that come out of Intel that are the "security issue"; it's the fact that Intel still assembles the products in places like Israel, Malaysia, Vietnam and China, and have done so for years. Perhaps something got lost in the wording, and it's the assembly, not the fabbing that the US government is concerned about.
That aside, I only just realized Intel also hasn't marked the assembly location on any of its heatspreaders since its move to 14nm. Broadwell, Skylake, Kaby, Coffee, Cascade...they all share the updated font and lack of assembly plant location. Last chips to have them were 22nm Devil's Canyon, which had the old font and location, and 22nm Haswell-E, which had the new font but still had the assembly plant.
The US was neutral before WW1 and should return to that, stay out of other countries and their business. Focus on making the country strong through civil projects that help the neglected citizens.
Lot's of things to consider other than just old, shitty, CPUs. Maybe that is all in the works and this is all that has leaked out. I would like to see all of our manufacturing come back like textiles and steel. However, that is going to take a total culture change. The first being that home made is going to be more expensive. The second is to get homemade shit less expensive. The third is getting to the point where people can afford these more expensive items.
Then you have the fact China fears some kind of military stand off with United States because of COVID-19 and there becomes a greater sense of urgency for USA to divorce all it can from China.
That said, I don't mind this idea either as long as it doesn't prevent the use of external plants as well. More plants on the homefront can't hurt as a stateside native, so why would I mind? Ryzen's first dies were diffused here. It's not a foreign idea to AMD either. Unemployment was actually fairly decent if not really low until COVID-19, so the loss of manufacturing jobs did not spell "no jobs" at all as some people seem to pretend. People saying there are "no jobs" are people failing to adapt to a changing market. I don't agree we should return to neutral, but we should take a step back and realize we are not the only country in the world, sort of like every other country on this planet has been doing for a bit (save maybe Russia and China, arguments can be made they are fairly self-centered too) Technically, AMD is not a fab at all but they did do a USA made die through global foundries with Ryzen 1.
Intel comes into play here because they are probably the mainstream CPU supplier that currently comes closest to the goal. AMD is manufactured by TSMC in Taiwan and the 3rd manufacturer capable of cutting edge nodes is Samsung which has foundries in South Korea and China.
From Intel's side... any business would probably be happy to take advantage of an influx of public money or incentives in this situation :D
Intel and US Govt had talks with that ridiculous formal "meeting and signing" Trump-style, and later agreed on Intel getting some financial incentives for expanding their operation in US, along with usual "jobs-jobs-jobs". That was almost 3 years ago. By "finalizing the plan" they mean dumping another billion or so into Arizona expansion. I live in a country where high unemployment rate is a norm. As far as I know - people in general are a bunch of lazy f%$#s. Even before COVID-19 pandemic people would complain about "no jobs, no opportunities" while standing drunk by the subway station next to a wall covered in job postings.
The guy said "home soil" he didn't say it had to be in America.
GloFlo was one of those companies subject to "voluntary" IP theft, it didnt help that AMD was in the crapper and heading deeper at the time.
The current list of foundries currently cannot be expanded to accommodate Intel, even a comeplete rework of current facilities would cost too much to even try, the risk of failure is alos a bit too much vs cost. Also, I doubt any of them (listed) have the technology 'sense', leta long the ability, to step up here.
It might help if the US also recognised Taiwan as a nation at the same time...