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Hypothetically a glut of unemployed but highly skilled semiconductor people hanging around might kick off a wave of startup innovation.
by jeffbee 1y ago
Hypothetically a glut of unemployed but highly skilled semiconductor people hanging around might kick off a wave of startup innovation.
- RetiredRichard 1y agoIt doesn't, unless there is cheap capital floating around
- dylan604 1y agoFabs aren't cheap, so you can't just start-up mentality you're way into this. This isn't a bunch of dudes living in the same house banging code on laptops. Serious investment would be needed. Even with bags of cash available, these are not available for 2-day delivery. There's a bit of lead time involved
- hmmokidk 1y agoThat or they’ll have to move to Shenzhen to find work
- 20after4 1y agoThis is the reality. The US is cooked.
- em3rgent0rdr 1y agoSurely Intel made them sign non-competes and will vigorously enforce Intel's troves of patents and trade-secrets.
- ashdksnndck 1y agoLucky for those people, California exists! Noncompetes can’t be enforced here, and amazingly, this applies even if the employee entered into the agreement before they came to California: https://www.littler.com/news-analysis/asap/california-reaches-across-state-lines-invalidate-employee-non-compete-agreements https://www.littler.com/news-analysis/asap/california-reache...
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> amazingly, this applies even if the employee entered into the agreement before they came to California Has this been tested? Why would an Oregon court care about what a California law says it can and cannot do?
- SJC_Hacker 1y agoWhat makes Oregon think it can enforce its law across state lines ?
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> What makes Oregon think it can enforce its law across state lines ? It’s absolutely possible to be a fugitive in one state from another. It’s also typically quite expensive and stressful. If I were on the other side of this fight, I’d use the opponent’s absence from Oregon courts to get civil judgements in my favour and then use the federal credit system to collect.
- SJC_Hacker 1y agoBut this is not a criminal matter Absent any superseding federal law, a contract with unenforceable clauses in California is not going to be enforceable in California. Since the breach of contract occurred in California, the claimant would have have legal standing
- SJC_Hacker 1y agoMean to say "claimant would not have legal standing"
- anon291 1y agoIn general you should ignore non competes but you should not divulge previous employers proprietary knowledge. No state will enforce a non compete if it means the person would be unemployed. The judge will laugh you out of the courtroom.
- ngokevin 1y agoAs a PDX native that went to Oregon State and saw a lot of people go towards Intel, I don't feel the Oregon Intel crowd has strong aptitude for starting something up. They're at Intel in the first place because it was a secure job in their hometown they could coast at. I'm sure there are many of them that can do it, but I don't feel Portland has strong startup energy.
- jeffbee 1y agoYou only need a sprinkling of people with the entrepreneurial spark to kick it off, right?
- UncleOxidant 1y agoYou also need funding. That tends to be harder to come by in Oregon vs Silicon Valley.
- ngokevin 1y agoIt helps there to be a strong community of founders, employees willing to take a risk to work at startup for less money, investors, capital, and general energy in the air. PNW tech scene is relatively low-key and apathetic to startups. Anyone with that type of ambition should have already migrated
- anon291 1y agoThere was a strong contingent of forward looking tech people and entrepreneurs a few years ago (pre COVID). They have left due to the large restrictions during COVID and the flight of capital and the general decline of Portland due to the riots and the lockdown measures.
- amanaplanacanal 1y agoWere there more restrictions in Oregon than California during COVID? Or are you talking about something else?
- 1y ago
- orangechairs 1y agoI am rooting for this to be the case, and frankly it should be, but typically the massive startup boom comes from companies IPOing (PayPal mafia, Google mafia, etc.). So much talent has been locked up at Intel, I'm hoping this is a liberation of sorts.
- rossdavidh 1y agoIt sounds like a lot of the jobs are in manufacturing (fabs) or closely related. Once upon a time, innovative startups could be in that space (that's how "Silicon Valley" got the silicon part of its name). But, for several decades now, it requires billions of dollars to start up a semiconductor fab, and VC's don't seem to be all that into funding manufacturing. I'm not saying it _should_ or _must_ be that way, just that it is.
- dyauspitr 1y agoOnly if there are paradigm shifts on the horizon. Chip making is high barrier to entry, capital intensive. No small collective is going to be able to start something up.
- forgotoldacc 1y agoYeah. The big problem with chip making is the effort to start up is absolutely monumental. China is putting all their money into it and still playing catch up. Japan is trying to get into the game and they're mostly aiming to make slightly older chips and bringing in companies that already have expertise. Those are two of the biggest economies in the world pumping loads of money and people into that engine to try to get it started and still just starting to make some progress. That's not to say there aren't great ideas out there that we're missing which could make it all easier and cheaper, but a small team is definitely going to have one hell of a time making stuff on a nanometer scale without billions and billions of dollars behind them. Software startups are easy, but hardware is hard. Massive hardware and microscopic hardware are harder.
- insane_dreamer 1y agoI wonder how many are on H1Bs? Intel has tons of engineers from India.