5 ms·

Indeed. Intel finally having some really competitive competitors (as it were) is great to see. I was going to mutter about this great competition coming from o

Indeed. Intel finally having some really competitive competitors (as it were) is great to see. I was going to mutter about this great competition coming from overseas and being an example of the Decline Of The West, but Global Foundries appears to be a mainly US+Europe based thing. (I know it span out of AMD a while back but had assumed until just now that it did all its manufacturing in China). Exciting times indeed.

Spooky23 9y ago
I think fabs are a business where capital rules vs labor cost. GlobalFoundies built a fab in New York, but got megabucks in aid to do so.
- neuromantik8086 9y ago
  GlobalFoundries is getting massive incentives to expand in New York State. The initial Saratoga Springs is just the first fab Cuomo has built for them. Currently, they're building another fab in Utica that's intended to rehabilitate it after its Rust Belt woes. Similarly, Tesla/Solar City received a huge number of economic incentives to build a factory in Buffalo. Naturally, since this is NYS there's also been a fair bit of corruption: [1] http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Kaloyeros-in-fight-to-get-charges-tossed-11160539.php http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Kaloyeros-in-fight-t... I fully expect the state government to throw a bunch of incentives at Amazon as well for HQ2- there's a push in Rochester for someone to take over all of the Kodak/Xerox buildings after those two companies royally messed up.
deepnotderp 9y ago
GloFo is owned by a middle eastern oil fund btw.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
No international company will put a fab in china unless the equipment is 10 years out of date. Semi conducter production isn’t labor intensive anyways.
- saas_co_de 9y ago
  False. GF has a JV to build a 300mm 22nm FD-SOI line in China https://www.globalfoundries.com/news-events/press-releases/globalfoundries-and-chengdu-partner-expand-fd-soi-ecosystem-china https://www.globalfoundries.com/news-events/press-releases/g...
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    22 nm is about 10 years old.
    - saas_co_de 9y ago
      Not the same thing. 22 FD-SOI is current gen for FD-SOI. TSMC is also building a 16nm line https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332704 https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332704 While it is true that cutting edge lines are going to stay in established facilities with established R&D teams there is nothing stopping China from getting the tech. Everything is for sale. What China is missing is the expert workforce that can actually bring up a line for a next gen process themselves, which takes time to build, not just money.
      - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
        There are two things china can’t buy because no country will sell it to them: a. Advanced semi conductor tech, b. Modern Jet turbine tech. Those two things China has to (and is) develop themselves. They definitely aren’t there yet, which is why they import those things in spades (most semiconductors are imported, and even china’s own jet fighters are mostly reliant on saturns). They will probably get there in the future.
        actuator 9y ago
        If they poach the employees from the companies building this stuff, wouldn't it be possible for them to build it? Also, I am not much knowledgeable about jet engines but why can't they just reverse engineer jet turbine tech.

Spooky23 9y ago

I think fabs are a business where capital rules vs labor cost. GlobalFoundies built a fab in New York, but got megabucks in aid to do so.

neuromantik8086 9y ago
GlobalFoundries is getting massive incentives to expand in New York State. The initial Saratoga Springs is just the first fab Cuomo has built for them. Currently, they're building another fab in Utica that's intended to rehabilitate it after its Rust Belt woes. Similarly, Tesla/Solar City received a huge number of economic incentives to build a factory in Buffalo. Naturally, since this is NYS there's also been a fair bit of corruption: [1] http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Kaloyeros-in-fight-to-get-charges-tossed-11160539.php http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Kaloyeros-in-fight-t... I fully expect the state government to throw a bunch of incentives at Amazon as well for HQ2- there's a push in Rochester for someone to take over all of the Kodak/Xerox buildings after those two companies royally messed up.

deepnotderp 9y ago

GloFo is owned by a middle eastern oil fund btw.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

No international company will put a fab in china unless the equipment is 10 years out of date. Semi conducter production isn’t labor intensive anyways.

saas_co_de 9y ago
False. GF has a JV to build a 300mm 22nm FD-SOI line in China https://www.globalfoundries.com/news-events/press-releases/globalfoundries-and-chengdu-partner-expand-fd-soi-ecosystem-china https://www.globalfoundries.com/news-events/press-releases/g...
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  22 nm is about 10 years old.
  - saas_co_de 9y ago
    Not the same thing. 22 FD-SOI is current gen for FD-SOI. TSMC is also building a 16nm line https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332704 https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332704 While it is true that cutting edge lines are going to stay in established facilities with established R&D teams there is nothing stopping China from getting the tech. Everything is for sale. What China is missing is the expert workforce that can actually bring up a line for a next gen process themselves, which takes time to build, not just money.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      There are two things china can’t buy because no country will sell it to them: a. Advanced semi conductor tech, b. Modern Jet turbine tech. Those two things China has to (and is) develop themselves. They definitely aren’t there yet, which is why they import those things in spades (most semiconductors are imported, and even china’s own jet fighters are mostly reliant on saturns). They will probably get there in the future.
      - actuator 9y ago
        If they poach the employees from the companies building this stuff, wouldn't it be possible for them to build it? Also, I am not much knowledgeable about jet engines but why can't they just reverse engineer jet turbine tech.