5 ms·

So that's about 2.3x more money in 20 years than the U.S. plans to spend on the plant in Ohio that will supposedly create 50,000 jobs. The minimum wage is $10.

• htag 4y ago
  Semiconductor manufacturing is not a zero sum game. We can increase the market by increasing the supply, and there are plenty of niches in the market for each manufacture to habit. More chips being produced is a net good for the world. I am more concerned that the chips are being used for something better than telemetry spyware or ad-tech spam than which stable democracy they are produced in.
• rdevsrex 4y ago
  Call me cynical, but I view the subsidies for these new US fabs as hedge against loosing production in Taiwan in the event of a war with China. That small price delta will be nothing if that happens.
  • marnett 4y ago
    That is not being cynical; that’s geopolitics!
• kibwen 4y ago
  Politicians of every nation increasingly understand that domestic chip production is a matter of national security (if not outright national sovereignty). In the long term, the upper bound on funds for chip production is "the entire defense spending budget".
• flakeoil 4y ago
  A semiconductor fab does not require that many people so the wages should not matter that much. And the relative amount invested is probably not that important. For the US it's important that there is at least some fairly high volume produced of the latest manufacturing nodes. Right now nothing is produced in the US of the latest node, as they are manufactured in Taiwan and South Korea.
  • datpiff 4y ago
    > A semiconductor fab does not require that many people so the wages should not matter that much. Likely thousands to tens-of-thousands of employees on-site at all times for fabs of this size. Most employees in the US won't be earning minimum wages, that hasn't been the case in the past.
    • flakeoil 4y ago
      Whatever the number, relatively speaking, it's basically peanuts compared to the number and value of the wafers and chips they are spitting out. It's advanced machines doing most of it, and there is an operator handling each machine. The machines are extremely expensive, the building is extremely expensive, the ventilation/filtration/air control system is expensive etc. These are not smartphone factories. What is expensive is running these fabs/lines at half the capacity.
      • datpiff 4y ago
        Yeah I agree. Mostly just don't like the use of num jobs x minimum wage - I don't think it's a useful comparison for fabs. > These are not smartphone factories. Exactly!
        • eggy 4y ago
          I used min. wage as a Fermi solution - back of the envelope - since I am not an industry expert or insider and the product was an HN comment. The article about the Ohio plant was quoted for the 50,000 jobs figure. I am interested in manufacturing in general coming back to the U.S., so it intrigued me that S. Korea is making the "world's largest chip center" contrasted with all of the news I've been hearing over the past 5 years about chip manufacturing as an investment strategy in the U.S.
  • ElectricalUnion 4y ago
    > fairly high volume produced of the latest manufacturing nodes By the time a fab is completed, it is often no longer in the "latest manufacturing nodes", specifically when it was not in the "latest manufacturing nodes" even at planning stages.
• cm2012 4y ago
  South Korea is an ally, its almost just as good for them to make semiconductors as us. Anywhere but China, really.
  • eggy 4y ago
    My original comment was more concerned about losing financial opportunity in the U.S., so S. Korea being good doesn't figure in that argument for me.
• Beached 4y ago
  USA can compete on quality and supply chain assurance. I'm not saying that SK chips are poor quality, but I imagine that a more expensive chip, or more expensive device is a small price to pay for reliable, accountable, and implant free assurance to the military or itar compliant corps. also in the new and upcoming space age that is budding, quality assurance is a number one concern.