I had heard that this had been killed. Is it back on?
This is an official announcement from the Department of Commerce that was made this morning.
Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
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Re: Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
#72I'm sure Intel will be very happy to bolster their cash savings with this investment. Or have we already forgotten about that broadband investment from way back?
The money afaik has to be used for actual manufacturing activities.
Re: Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
#73I feel sorry for any startups looking to innovate in this space. It's hard enough competing against established players without them getting billions in free money. Intel has had the resources to build out fabs in the US for decades. Instead, they've chosen to build elsewhere, and now they're rewarded for it? They recently announced their $20b facility in Ohio is being "put on hold": https://www.tweaktown.com/news/96…
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Re: Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
#74I feel sorry for any startups looking to innovate in this space. It's hard enough competing against established players without them getting billions in free money. Intel has had the resources to build out fabs in the US for decades. Instead, they've chosen to build elsewhere, and now they're rewarded for it? They recently announced their $20b facility in Ohio is being "put on hold": https://www.tweaktown.com/news/96…
Israel investment might have gone through due to their research department in the same country. Also, they got a grant from the govt in Israel.
Re: Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
#75I understand why Intel is getting these, but would be nice to see this money go to companies that are still innovating and are somewhere in the US coalition/orbit (TSMC, Samsung, etc.)
Re: Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
#76I had heard that this had been killed. Is it back on?
You're commenting about a press release from the Agency which grants the investments that was published today - so I think it's safe to assume, "Yes, it's back on"
Re: Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
#77Re: Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
#78I understand why Intel is getting these, but would be nice to see this money go to companies that are still innovating and are somewhere in the US coalition/orbit (TSMC, Samsung, etc.)
Samsung? Really?
Re: Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
#79Right now one of the biggest blockers in on-shoring semiconductor fab at any kind of reasonable price-point and timescale is the lack of a skilled workforce. This legislation has dual objectives: train new people to get into sophisticated manufacturing AND to build out the actual infrastructure itself. That almost guarantees it won't be the most efficient way to actually get these chips on American soil. Whether we look back in 20 years and think "wow glad we took that hit upfront" is anyone's guess.
Re: Intel to Receive $8.5B in Grants to Build Chip Plants
#80It's unlikely at this stage it's possible to bootstrap a company that makes CPUs, GPUs, etc, so it seems to me the US government wants to hedge their bets and keep Intel alive for now. $25B in total is a small price to pay for that. That being said, I would've preferred it's not Intel that gets the life-line.
Intel is the only domestic candidate. Global foundries stepped back from high end semi production about a decade ago, leaving only Intel. And besides Intel, there are only two other companies on Earth; TSMC and Samsung.
The thing is that it’s not leading edge chips that are the most important for most consumer goods like cars and random other products. It’s the trailing edge chips that companies like TSMC is manufacturing on fully depreciated equipment.
While it makes no sense financially for a new company to buy equipment to build trailing edge chips, it’s perfectly logical for TSMC just to keep old fans running