Tuesday, August 15th 2023
Intel Wants More Than its Fair Share of CHIPS Act Money
During the Aspen Security Forums 2023, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger spoke on the topic of semiconductors and national security. During his speech, Gelsinger mentioned that Intel should get the lion's share of the US$52 billion US CHIPS Act money, simply because Intel is a US company. In Gelsinger's opinion, it appears that TSMC and Samsung don't deserve as much, despite both companies manufacturing semiconductors for US companies, with Samsung already having a foundry in Texas, while TSMC is still struggling with the construction of its Arizona foundry.
Admittedly, Intel has far more foundries in the US, but it also seems like Gelsinger forgot about other foundries, such as GlobalFoundries, but also companies such as Micron, Texas Instruments, Qorvo, NXP, On Semi, Analog Devices and so forth that all own foundries that produce their own chips on US soil. We'd expect all these companies to be eyeing the CHIPS Act cash and without many of those companies, Intel wouldn't be able to sell any of its chips, as many of them produce much needed components that are used to build motherboards, laptops and what not. Gelsinger was obviously pointing fingers at the current US China trade war and how the export controls are causing concerns with regards to the global semiconductor business. As such, Gelsinger wants Intel to have fewer restrictions from the currently imposed trade regulations, largely due to China being some 25 to 30 percent of Intel's market, with Intel being busy expanding in the country. Make what you want of this, but it's clear that Gelsinger is expecting to eat the cake and have it at the same time. Video after the break.
Source:
via Tom's Hardware
Admittedly, Intel has far more foundries in the US, but it also seems like Gelsinger forgot about other foundries, such as GlobalFoundries, but also companies such as Micron, Texas Instruments, Qorvo, NXP, On Semi, Analog Devices and so forth that all own foundries that produce their own chips on US soil. We'd expect all these companies to be eyeing the CHIPS Act cash and without many of those companies, Intel wouldn't be able to sell any of its chips, as many of them produce much needed components that are used to build motherboards, laptops and what not. Gelsinger was obviously pointing fingers at the current US China trade war and how the export controls are causing concerns with regards to the global semiconductor business. As such, Gelsinger wants Intel to have fewer restrictions from the currently imposed trade regulations, largely due to China being some 25 to 30 percent of Intel's market, with Intel being busy expanding in the country. Make what you want of this, but it's clear that Gelsinger is expecting to eat the cake and have it at the same time. Video after the break.
34 Comments on Intel Wants More Than its Fair Share of CHIPS Act Money
Okay ;)
CHIPS act exists because US (and the west in general) is morbidly aware and scared of its dependency on Taiwan and Korea for its leading-end chips (both threatened by China and DPRK respectively). Especially when there was a mini silicon apocalypse during covid and everyone became acutely aware of how bad the semiconductor situation really is. As another commenter pointed out, these aren't handouts, this is bribery. All large economies are trying to bribe fabs to build facilites in their backyards ASAP.
Taiwan and South Korea have poured a metric fuck ton of money bringing up TSMC and Samsung - those companies didn't do it on their own. TSMC is literally a state project started by the government of Taiwan. Intel's point is that US should be doing the same for American companies rather than spreading it equally among American and foreign fabs. It's a fair question to ask if giving money to TSMC and Samsung, after they already got government funding from their "home" countries accomplishes what CHIPS act is trying to accomplish.
Of course, as a cynic you can point out that it is very convenient that Intel is the only American fab remotely close to being competitive with TSMC and Samsung, but the argument that they are making does have some genuine merit. If the US CHIPS ACT doesn't end up supporting a top-to-bottom (almost, ignoring ASML) American fab then it's not meeting its objective to begin with. The US stands to lose orders of magnitude more money than the 53 billion they've committed to CHIPS act if shit hits the fan. TSMC spent 33 Billion on capex by itself in 2022 alone. 53 billion spread across 5 years and across various companies in the supply chain is peanuts.
PS : I'm an Asian dweller and don't give a single shit if Intel or US tech industry collapses, but I'm playing "the devil's advocate" here to provide some perspective.