451–460 of 511 posts
Someone from TSMC reached out to me on LinkedIn to apply to a 4 year program (2 years in Taiwan 2+ years in Arizona). As a software PM I don’t know they pegged me right, but interesting how they are recruiting.
Did they offer relocation? I'm always curious what kind of deals are in place for the families involved.
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Guess what by putting a factory doing the newest node you educate a whole new generation of engineers that can build and run those next fabs.
TSMC buys their next gen stuff from ASML (Netherlands), so the problem is not knowledge transfer, it's good old manufacturing and scaling up. (And that means labor, and traditionally labor laws in the Members States meant that offshoring large scale production was the smart choice ... strategic importance or not, if it doesn't make sense economically and business-wise, then that means it'll be instantly worthless str…
Knowledge transfer is key.
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No it is not. Why don't you read my posts again. California is currently trending downward in certain metrics related to economics but this is entirely different from being in an "economic downturn." California going into an economic downturn in the future is a 100 percent possibility. CA and the entire united States goes through economic downturns about roughly every decade and this has been going on for centuries.…
I have a feeling that further discussion will not be productive, as your other posts do not contain hints of what you say in this comment, and this comment is a big change in what you were saying before in comments. I'm not sure why California's in-migration of the highly educated with high incomes, and out-migration of less educated folks counts as a brain drain. I'm not sure why you insist on an economic downturn i…
The brain drain consists of measurable negative population growth. More people moving out then people coming in, in aggregate. Additionally the real numbers show that California natives are the ones that are mostly leaving.
This. Is. A. Statistical. Number.
If negative population continues by raw logic after the population is small enough, California or any state would indeed become an economic wasteland. There is no opinion here. This is fundamental fact.
You're stopping this interaction as the discussion increases in productivity while I start citing more and more real numbers and real sources and undeniable logic that you are finding harder and harder to twist to fit your world view.
I think the reality of what's going on here is that the discussion is becoming too productive. It is an exposing a world view you are too biased to accept.
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Suppose china invades Taiwan. Then what? They become a pariah state and lose all of their international trading partners for things like oil. Something like 50% of Chinese agriculture is dependent on foreign oil inputs...
Not sure Russia, Iran, or the Saudis give a shit about Taiwan. China only loses its oil shipments if it can't secure shipping through the Indian ocean or build an overland alternative. It won't make a move until those are complete.
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Problem is the EU is not as "united" as the above examples. Which country gets the fab (and reaps the benefit) if the EU provides subsidies (Paid for by all)?
This is also why there won't ever be a European Silicon Valley. Paris isn't going to support any Europe-wide effort to create one that isn't located in the Hexagon, nor will Berlin support one that isn't somewhere in Germany. London pre-Brexit would not and did not support anything that might take away from Silicon Fen. While other US states encourage their own tech centers' growth, Floridians and New Yorkers and Tex…
In my opinion Europe needs to go about it via policy, and maybe even culture, rather than funding. Get rid of non-competes. Make financing less scary for founders and make bankruptcy less punishing - my understanding is that in the EU, a startup failing can destroy a founder's life financially. Controversially, roll back overly permissive or complex labor laws that make it difficult to fire and hire.
None of this involves throwing money at the problem. It's about incentives. There's little reason for someone who wants to grow a large technology company to do it in the EU. There's little reason for someone who wants to be an employee of a startup to do it in the EU either. Obviously people still do both, but it's at too low of a rate and density for it to sustain a chain reaction leading to something like SV.
Is automotive industry all that EU cares about? What about IoT/robotics? The fact that TSMC want to build only their older fab here is really disappointing to me.
Older lithography is what European automakers need, and the same can be said for robotics. The only reason for EU to demand fabrication of leading edge chips in Europe is hubris. How many laptops and mobile phones, in percent terms relative to those respective markets, are assembled in Europe?
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>The EU exported over 200 million doses. If the EU wanted, they could've issued an export ban like the US did. Please stop repeating this lie. There is and has never been a US vaccine export ban, and the US has not seized vaccines meant for other countries. The Trump administration last year signed gigantic contracts for every planned vaccine (Operation Warp Speed), because no one knew which ones would work. Like, en…
Then how do you explain this? https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/... It doesn't matter if exports are restricted because of "America first" or because of an outright ban. The result is exactly the same. The UK is also arguing that they don't restrict exports but when asked how many doses were exported, they cite national security concerns and refuse to answer. Whatever that means.
Being the first to buy something, and being in a position to buy all of the supply (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-24/biden-use... ), is not the same thing as enacting a law to prevent other countries from buying some. Admittedly to the other countries the outcome is the same, but there is a difference.
Further, I specifically said vaccines. The US did invoke the Defense Production Act for certain medical equipment, to make sure its contracts are fulfilled first. But, let me quote from https://www.ft.com/content/82fa8fb4-a867-4005-b6c2-a79969139... , "The DPA does not allow the administration to block exports overseas".
The US's contracts would be fulfilled first regardless (albeit more slowly) without the DPA, because (as I said) the US was the first and paid the most. The US's Pfizer contract explicitly prohibited the company from exporting US-produced vaccine doses until March 31, but the company only began to export US-produced doses at the end of April because it still had to fulfill said US contract first. https://www.barrons.com/articles/pfizer-to-export-u-s-made-v...
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You don't just 'purchase machines' to magically create cutting edge semiconductors. If this were the case, why in the world would ASML be selling them to TSMC? ASML's Q1 Net Revenue: $2.79 billion TSMC Q1 Net Revenue: $12.9 billion Don't you think ASML would just pocket the world's semiconductor income if this were the case? The machines are only a part of the equation. How you use the machines and the processes you…
by that logic, why doesn't TSMC build the machines themselves and pocket the money?
Apple designed M1 but outsourced to TSMC for production. if Apple can design, surely they can produce, no? just buy some EUV machines, create the fab process and build a fab. easy, right?
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Biden promised $50 billion in subsidies for the industry, the EU does not have that kind of spending power, and (as a European) I'm happy they don't try to out-subsidise them. Chips are a global industry, so yes, the factories will end up there but we will be able to buy chips subsidised by US tax payers. Many economists would claim that business and citizens would be more likely to efficiently allocate that $50B the…
The problem with the chip industry is that it's not really a money maker. Yes you need factories in your own country but this is only because of national security, the actual economic benefit isn't the deciding factor. The chip shortage is creating an economic incentive to expand production capacity on its own, there is no need for subsidies but countries should accommodate new fabs by making them viable to build the…
You can't separate the two in the case of the US. Having the semi fabs in the US is an economic factor because it's a national security factor, even if it involved adding zero net new jobs because it was all automated by AI + robotics.
Insurance is a very important segment of economy. Risk limiting, prevention. Security, both cyber and physical. And so on. For a business they're critical to sales even though they're costs and not generative for the businesses in terms of sales, they help to make sales possible by protecting the business (like having shelter for your employees). Building fabs in the US plays that same role to the US economy, it's a form of insurance, and it also helps to maintain/retain tech know-how. It's absolutely critical to the US economy, when you consider the realistic context of the world, re the US & China (as opposed to running a spreadsheet economic scenario that involves no potential politics, conflicts or wars).
Semiconductors are critical now and will be more so in the future. The US has both the world's largest economy, most to lose in the tech sector, most powerful military (which depends on semiconductors and will more so tomorrow) and the most wealth of any nation. A superpower without a military is no superpower; the most wealth without a military to protect it, you won't keep that wealth for long. It's pretty obvious that's a very massive economic factor. Being brought to your knees as a superpower - both militarily and economically - by your primary global rival because you failed to build some fabs, would be particularly stupid. It's similar to the rare earth metals problem, both in terms of economy and national security.
You might be able to separate the fab context of economy from national security to a limited extent in smaller nations, where realistically there's nothing you can do to stand off against far larger nations regardless of what you do about semiconductors (you'll lose whether you build that fab or not). Such is not the case with the US however. The US has epic scale global economic interests that very strongly benefit from having global military projection and security.
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I wouldn't call it angrily, but yes, a big focus has been on equity and eliminating different levels for students. Some elements make sense or I think would do little harm. I was high achieving in math - but the push to calc in high school does feel overdone I think - it's often a shallow understanding. They are very focused particularly on issues like 30%+ of Asian students and only 3-4% of other minorities being in…
They are pretty angry that asians are outperforming other groups, and the intention is to suppress the accomplishments of groups they feel are doing "too well", literally making Harrison Bergeron a real thing. In terms of calculus in high school being too overdone it's not too early at all for smart students. Many countries have a gymnasium style system and you can do much more than calculus in high school. In fact,…
Do you have any evidence that teachers are more likely to hold blank slate world-views? I've met very few people who believe this, and teachers don't seem any more likely to me to hold these views.
"notion that some students are smarter than others and that these discrepencies have consistent ethnic patterns fills them with a lot of rage due to their politics/religion."
Well, I do feel somewhat enraged reading these types of statements because it is wrong and harmful. I also say this as someone without a "blank slate world-view" (I've a background in genetics) and as a teacher.
You're statement is wrong because: 1) Race is a nebulous political construct not consistent over time and space 2) Observed racial differences are context dependent and also not consistent over time and space
You cite "Asians" as outperforming other groups (presumably in school in the West?) as one of your "consistent" ethnic patterns. But on closer inspection it is nothing but artifact of cherry-picking results that fit your hypothesis. Another time and place and you may get totally different results - and only one example is sufficient to prove your "consistent" hypothesis wrong. In fact, you pointed out yourself that performance has changed in the US and various European countries, undercutting your whole point on consistent racial differences! Probably if we go back to the period of European colonialism the difference is even more stark, but that is also cherry picking history... If we go back 3000 years, Europe is a poorly educated backwater relative to Egypt or the Middle East.
Group math educational attainment has far more to do with social context and history than "racial distribution of those students who are good at math". It's why relatively recent Asian immigration from say China for scientific and technical jobs is likely to produce kids who are good at math, but the same out-performance in not seen in say, Hmong refugees from Vietnam.
Also, AFAIK Asian kids don't currently outperform all other ethnic groups in the United States in educational attainment - I believe that honor now goes to Nigerian kids. Does that fit your world-view?
"Taiwan and China are under no such illusions. They are happy to identify smart students and give them challenging topics in order to help them achieve their potential, rather than trying to slow down the best students in order to pretend that everyone has the same talent for math. " Right, because teachers don't try to help students reach their potential and try to slow down great students?! Students can't skip grades, take AP classes or graduate college early?! A teacher giving everyone in the course the same math homework or test is pretending everyone has the same talent for math?!