Live data from Hacker News

Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed

wsj.com

21–30 of 98 posts

Re: Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed

#21
post #15

Not surprised: $2.3B is chump change in semiconductor manufacturing especially if you're starting from scratch. Double that, add a zero, and wait 5-7 more years.

So 50B? That's nowhere near what you need. Last year both TSMC and Intel announced they are spending a hundred billion each on new fabs (TSMC in April, Intel in July) and they have all the R&D already and good relationship with ASML (and both own a few percent of it, too). But the US banned ASML from selling to China so you need to catch up with ASML and Intel/TSMC at the same time. Now, I don't know when ASML starte…

why haven't alternatives emerged to ASML to help drive down the cost of building new fabs?

do you know what the cost breakdown is when building fabs?

Re: Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed

#23
post #15

Not surprised: $2.3B is chump change in semiconductor manufacturing especially if you're starting from scratch. Double that, add a zero, and wait 5-7 more years.

So 50B? That's nowhere near what you need. Last year both TSMC and Intel announced they are spending a hundred billion each on new fabs (TSMC in April, Intel in July) and they have all the R&D already and good relationship with ASML (and both own a few percent of it, too). But the US banned ASML from selling to China so you need to catch up with ASML and Intel/TSMC at the same time. Now, I don't know when ASML starte…

[deleted]

Re: Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed

#24
post #11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They have to put in a lot of time and resources to rediscover closely guarded secrets that are almost impossible to reverse engineer yes, they have to repeat all that work, they have to solve all those solved problems again because companies that solved the problems won't share their solutions.

>they have to solve all those solved problems again because companies that solved the problems won't share their solutions. ...because those solutions are the company's competitive advantage that China has tried to steal for years on end now? Not to mention in many instances those 'solutions' are owned by or access controlled by the parent country of said company, many of which view China as at the least a bad faith…

[deleted]

Re: Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed

#25
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They have to put in a lot of time and resources to rediscover closely guarded secrets that are almost impossible to reverse engineer yes, they have to repeat all that work, they have to solve all those solved problems again because companies that solved the problems won't share their solutions.

Why would a company share its trade secrets? It's one of the few differentiators left to most companies. Not to mention the national security arguments.

> Why would a company share its trade secrets?

indeed, I wish I could answer this.

> Not to mention the national security arguments.

it is an inteserting excercise to consider this from the rival's point of view

Re: Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed

#26

Economical and performant chip and jet turbine production are two areas where China can't really take any shortcuts. They have to put in a lot of time and resources to rediscover closely guarded secrets that are almost impossible to reverse engineer. They are dumping in the resources, so I'm sure they will eventually get there, but it might be a few decades (in both fields, they can already do performant or economica…

Interesting. What about hiring people from the leading companies? Isn't that how a lot of knowledge transfer happens in all industries? Are non-competes enforceable internationally?

Leaders in their field usually do not want to live under a totalitarian communist government.

Re: Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed

#27
post #21
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 50B? That's nowhere near what you need. Last year both TSMC and Intel announced they are spending a hundred billion each on new fabs (TSMC in April, Intel in July) and they have all the R&D already and good relationship with ASML (and both own a few percent of it, too). But the US banned ASML from selling to China so you need to catch up with ASML and Intel/TSMC at the same time. Now, I don't know when ASML starte…

why haven't alternatives emerged to ASML to help drive down the cost of building new fabs? do you know what the cost breakdown is when building fabs?

The Youtube channel Asianometry has a great 18min video "China’s ASML is Years and Years Behind" analyzing the challenges of building fabs and lithography tools: https://youtu.be/DtOyW-JpJjM

The channel's older videos have a lot lot of information about fab economics, though I dunno if there's one that has a general cost breakdown.

Re: Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. What about hiring people from the leading companies? Isn't that how a lot of knowledge transfer happens in all industries? Are non-competes enforceable internationally?

Leaders in their field usually do not want to live under a totalitarian communist government.

When the dude from Alibaba got disappeared for a few weeks, I said to myself, "Well, I won't be starting my next trillion dollar business there."

Re: Two startups tried to catch up to makers of advanced computer chips, and failed

#30
I have a theory. Not a good one but it's a theory

Any one organisation can only be efficient if the whole organisation can fit in one persons head. It must be possible to reason about changes in one area affecting another. This anecdotally applies to every software system i have worked on - once you don't understand how another part works decisions you make become divorced from reality

As such organisations must either simplify, so they are reason-able or they must split into markets (which seem to be very good at getting efficiency out of complexity) - or hire people with bigger heads ! (this does not mean a niche for AI - at least not yet)

I think what I am trying to get at is that someone at Intel must understand how it all fits together - and someone at Boeing etc

Post reply on HN