cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41305880
The CHIPS bill was a massive disappointment. It was cut down to 1/5th from the intended size due to house committee BS, and then the Biden administration decided to use it as a platform to enact a bunch of wholly unrelated social policies.
I’m not saying that jobs should not offer onsite daycare or have lofty environmental goals. However this was a bill designed to ensure the US maintains an advantage in a critical industry. Maybe put that stuff in another bill.
And they soon will realize the infinite money glitch is just in games and not reality.
That’s because they are serious about it. Chip fabrication will likely determine the victor of the next 25 years in world politics.
But they are buying mature-node equipment, says the article. That doesn’t mean shit other then more cloning and counterfeiting.
Or that there’s a huge amount of legit demand for mature node chips and it makes sense to own the supply for it.
The 5000 microcontrollers you inyeract with each day, by and large, do not need 5nm processes.
We saw a few years ago how relatively cheap, commodity-grade, low-complexity chips suddenly become vital when you can’t get them and they have unfinished cars piling up at the assembly plant.
That’s great and all, but you missed the theme of this thread.
China has been the king of bulk products for years. Saying that recent investments will alter world politics in 25 years is a bit strange. Saturating markets is what China does best.
China started their high-speed rail network by buying German trains, today their trains are faster than Germany’s and their rail network is more extensive and cheaper.
They’re investing in education, every step of the supply chain, and their chip companies, and bringing in foreign experts and equipment to fill in any gaps. That’s how you get an advanced semiconductor industry.
Great example of another tech that is slowly bankrupting China because of it‘s overly excessive but poor implementation. One trillion dollars of debt and rising for a network that is barely used in most parts.
Trains are one thing, modern chip fab is a completely different. Buying older equipment is not going to get them anywhere but into the production of chips that have been on the market for 10 years already.
This is one industry where each generation has hard limits for manufacturing.
