4 ms·
This is something I've wondered about myself. Like, if I was going to be building a foundry in North America that is supposed to operate 24/7 producing silicon
by qchris 5y ago
This is something I've wondered about myself. Like, if I was going to be building a foundry in North America that is supposed to operate 24/7 producing silicon for potentially many decades and required billions of dollars of ongoing investment, I'd probably try to pick somewhere in the upper Midwest like Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, or even Missouri. You might potentially get a little lake weather depending on where you pick, but the big risks like drought, earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes would be much less likely, there's not exactly a shortage of space, and there's a number of mid-sized cities and some elite universities in the region that could both help attract and keep talent happy. Are the tax credits in AZ really that much more attractive?
- bee_rider 5y agoI suspect it is a tradeoff between "cheap real estate" and "nearby California." But if I were in charge, I'd try to put some fabs as close to the Northeast megalopolis as possible while still being cheap. So probably like... Pennsylvania? Upstate NY? Hell, why not Maine? Better weather in the NE (which isn't much of a statement, Arizona is barely human habitable) and it might be interesting to experiment with some alternative tech culture to Silicon Valley's (more down to Earth, IMO).