U.S. Government in Talks with Intel to Build Processor Factories on Home Soil

[btarunr]

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.



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[mtcn77]

I endorse this idea. While at that, remind the surgeon general that profit has 'no place' in public health. You need good scientists? You need good mental health & to do that revert nixon's profit initiative in the election campaign.
Reinstate US its common sense. Either,

1. Elect Robert Lustig the new surgeon general,
2. Listen to Edward Bernays stating common sense in the public library as the polar opposite of his public relations marketing invention,
3. Abolish nixon era health policies.

Bring quality back to America.

 

[Jack1n]

The United States had have fairly low unemployment before the pandemic, I wonder how they will have enough domestic labor for this.

 

[Kapone33]

The United States had have fairly low unemployment before the pandemic, I wonder how they will have enough domestic labor for this.

Depends where you live in the States.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Title needs spellchecking.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Sounds like a bit of a ruse to be honest.
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.

List of semiconductor fabrication plants - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[evernessince]

Given this administration's track record, I'm expecting a ton of free government money for Intel that will likely lead to limited if any results. This administration is so socialist when it comes to big business it's not even funny.

 

[Xzibit]

Sounds like a bit of a ruse to be honest.
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.

List of semiconductor fabrication plants - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Maybe intel is looking to be re-inburst for all the money they had Fab 42/22 idle

 

[tabascosauz]

Sounds like a bit of a ruse to be honest.
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.

List of semiconductor fabrication plants - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Intel is more or less the only company that makes current, "latest and greatest" high performance processors, in their own fabs, on home soil though. This is the same story for China prior to launching their making-modern-processors-at-home initiative last year; there are plenty of fabs operating in China, but the processes aren't deemed suitable for the new processor technology that's be going to be made once they finish stealing developing 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.

 

[Steevo]

If the US both government and private sector want to keep blood off their hands from blood diamonds, labor exploitation for lithium, and much else they need to bring manufacturing back to the US of A so the government and people can control the whole chain and avoid dependency on other countries.


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.

 

[moproblems99]

Hmmmm, what about AMD? GPUs? Not sure if any memory chips are manufactured here.

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.

 

[arbiter]

Some, such as The Verge's T.C. Sottek point this out to be a de-globalization strategy.

I would say its the opposite cause the problem with how things are now is everything is being centrailized in china which is what would be "de-globalization". Having manufacturing in US as well would mean next time something like this happens the supply yes would be effected but it wouldn't be completely grinded to a halt as it was. Knowing China though i bet they end up being export restriction's on needed material as to try to force companies to bring it all back to them. China has no problem doing stuff like that to lure manufacturing to them.

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.

With how China has been manipulating markets world wide that is impossible thing to do.

 

[moproblems99]

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.

I would love to stay out of other country's business. Including keeping all of our money here. We could save tens of billions, hell hundreds of billions, and take care of own. Nothing like borrowing from other countries to give it to other countries.

 

[watzupken]

I think when unemployment is high in US, what is the point of "globalization" and giving the jobs elsewhere? So what you get cheaper products that are made in China, because when you have no job, you cannot afford anyway. Not trying to be selfish here, but logically if people have no jobs, can there be an increase in demand?

 

[hat]

Doesn't Intel already have fabs in the US?

 

[Paganstomp]

Chemicals... look up IBM Endicott spill. And you wonder why electronic manufacturing is in a world of hurt in the USA.

 

[Matthew Linke]

Doesn't Intel already have fabs in the US?

Yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_sites

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It's not just COVID-19 though, there's a growing fear of chips with Chinese spyware in them finding their way into critical system in US military equipment. Uncle Sam wants products "Made in USA" so it doesn't have to worry about Chinese interference nor IP theft. Department of Defense is particularly vulnerable and of greatest interest to China.

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.

 

[Matthew Linke]

If they do the whole manufacturing of the Chips in the U.S or parts in say Israel or Ireland. I can see a reason for the high prices they have right now. At the same time, I think Intel will only do it if AMD is held to the same standard but they would not be as competitive if AMD did.

 

[R-T-B]

I endorse this idea. While at that, remind the surgeon general that profit has 'no place' in public health. You need good scientists? You need good mental health & to do that revert nixon's profit initiative in the election campaign.
Reinstate US its common sense. Either,

1. Elect Robert Lustig the new surgeon general,
2. Listen to Edward Bernays stating common sense in the public library as the polar opposite of his public relations marketing invention,
3. Abolish nixon era health policies.

Bring quality back to America.

I am really sturggling to see what mental health or the Surgeon General has to do with this at all... care to explain?

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?

I think Intel will only do it if AMD is held to the same standard but they would not be as competitive if AMD did.

Ryzen's first dies were diffused here. It's not a foreign idea to AMD either.

I think when unemployment is high in US, what is the point of "globalization" and giving the jobs elsewhere? So what you get cheaper products that are made in China, because when you have no job, you cannot afford anyway.

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.

The US was neutral before WW1 and should return to that

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)

Hmmmm, what about AMD?

Technically, AMD is not a fab at all but they did do a USA made die through global foundries with Ryzen 1.

 

[btarunr]

Yeah, the most powerful desktop processor fabbed in the US has to be the AMD Threadripper 2990WX.

 

[Matthew Linke]

Technically, AMD is not a fab at all but they did do a USA made die through global foundries with Ryzen 1.

I did not know that, Great to know. I like AMD CPU's, have generally been the go-to CPU company for me on a budget.

 

[londiste]

It's not just COVID-19 though, there's a growing fear of chips with Chinese spyware in them finding their way into critical system in US military equipment. Uncle Sam wants products "Made in USA" so it doesn't have to worry about Chinese interference nor IP theft. Department of Defense is particularly vulnerable and of greatest interest to China.

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.

This is probably the reason this is being talked about. US Government sector is trying to distance/decouple its critical parts from China or Chinese influence. There is some merit in this idea.

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

 

[silentbogo]

This sounds like a typical rehash of old news.
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.

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 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.

 

[Caring1]

They're gunna need to build a bigger Embassy in Taiwan if it's going to house a chip manufacturing plant inside it.
The guy said "home soil" he didn't say it had to be in America.