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Why America Will Lose Semiconductors
- mountainriver 4y agoThis is such a crucial thing to fix in terms of national security you would think it would be wildly bi partisan
- car_analogy 4y agoI believe it is currently bi-partisanly ignored.
- jjtheblunt 4y agoMaybe because it's a-partisan it's not bi-partisan, like neither party can deride the other for having thought of it?
- armitron 4y agoI agree with every single point he makes, but regarding proposals, given the degree of current US disfunction, they are little more than wishful thinking without any realistic chance of being implemented.
- autopilot23 4y agoGood.
- FooBarBizBazz 4y agoIt seems that, if Taiwan is lost, and if China and the West stop cooperating in the semiconductor industry, then both sides will lose, and the world's semiconductor capability, as a whole, will be set back. Because the West makes the machines you need to build a fab, and the software you need to design chips. But China actually will have the fans. Neither side will have everything that's needed, and the world will simply lose fast cheap chips.
- FooBarBizBazz 4y agos/fans/fabs/
- cestith 4y agoThe part I don't understand about the article is why software companies and builders of durable consumer goods care where the fabs for chips are located. Does it harm Windows or Visual Studio if the processor is from China? Can Tesla not build cars with chips from wherever can build them? Losing the semiconductor industry is bad all on its own. We don't need to pretend other industries can't go on functioning on chips made in South Korea from ISAs developed in the UK.
- truffdog 4y agoIf you don't own the full industrial and agricultural stack, in times of stress it will be yanked from under you. See international news from 2020-2022.
- cestith 4y agoThat's a good reason to have the semiconductor industry. The software wouldn't stop working on existing processors during a disruption of several months or a few years. The focus should still be on the semiconductor industry rather than certain consumers of it.
- yucky 4y agoWell let's pretend Ukraine controlled 67% of all semiconductor manufacturing. Now let's pretend Russia invades them and they can no longer freely produce or export those chips, and since it can take years to get new foundries up and running elsewhere in the world, that means we are all screwed. Now swap Ukraine with Taiwan, and Russia with China and you have your answer.
- cestith 4y agoNo, I really don't. Everyone would be impacted by a semiconductor shortage, as we've already seen. Yet the software continues to work on existing processors and memory modules. The focus should be on where the shortage would be, not on a certain small and unrepresentative subset of who could be impacted by the shortage.
- simonblack 4y agoWhy are there so few semiconductor startups in the US? COST. Western countries have priced themselves out of the market.
- bcrl 4y agoAt least the ongoing creation of new superfund sites is no longer business as usual for semiconductor firms.