A feud is heating up between Arizona workers and the world’s leading chipmaker after the company claimed the US doesn’t have the skills to build its new factory::TSMC wants to bring in foreign reinforcements to get its Arizona factory running because it claims there aren’t enough qualified local workers.
This seems like an “if you build it, they will come” situation. We clearly don’t have a thriving chip maker industry in this country, so it’s going to take a while to build that job market.
I thought the US gov was dedicated to making this happen no matter the cost?
Agreed. It seems that the arguments here have more to do with time. I’m totally making an assumption here, but wouldn’t catching up with the Taiwanese take at least half a generation of time to learn the craft properly let alone make innovative advances in semiconductor manufacturing and architecture?
No, Intel tried a novel architecture (different from TSMC) and it was found to be unviable. They basically wasted a few years going down the wrong path. They have incredible engineers and will catch up. We’re at a point where the technology is limited by the machines they buy, which Intel and TSMC have the same vendors. They are behind because they went down a fruitless path, but they switched course and are now playing catch-up
Why do people keep saying this? There are many fans in the US. And for those that manufacture abroad, they still design their chips hear, ie Apple. People don’t want to work at TSMC precisely because there are alternatives. Intel is demanding, but TSMC has a horrible track record regarding respecting their workers and safety. They don’t even lock out electricity or gases on their tools when they’re being worked on. As a personal anecdote, I received an offer from a company that paid much better to work at TSMC, but declined the offer based on the customer. Luckily a couple months later I found another job at the site I wanted that paid a little better even.