back to article Washington pours $3B into silicon smackdown to outpackage Asia

The US has earmarked $3 billion in funding it hopes will drive US leadership in advanced packaging technologies, seen as a key part of the future semiconductor industry. As part of the CHIPS for America funding, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said there will be approximately $3 billion available for …

  1. Tron Silver badge

    The EU will be chuffed.

    The US having spent years complaining about Chinese state funding, is now copying them. So much for the free market.

    Anyone planning on relying on USG cash will have to consider what a future Trump regime would do.

    And once the US have onshored the entire Taiwanese chip industry, how safe will Taiwan be?

    1. blackcat Silver badge

      Re: The EU will be chuffed.

      Its not like these companies can't afford to do this, they would just rather the taxpayer coughs up so as to not risk their bottom line.

      Trump was all for onshoring.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The EU will be chuffed.

      "And once the US have onshored the entire Taiwanese chip industry, how safe will Taiwan be?"

      Why would they want to onshore the entire TW chip industry? All the US want is sufficient capacity to ensure that a blockade or invasion of Taiwan wouldn't cause the US to either grind to a halt, or be at China's beck and call for advanced technology. Curiously, it's also the opposite of what your post implies, in that it is also a signal to China that the US won't be blackmailed over Taiwan, which paradoxically would make Taiwan safer.

      1. blackcat Silver badge

        Re: The EU will be chuffed.

        One thing that is overlooked is that all this new $$ is going in to nice new shiny small node processes or exotics like silicon carbide. TSMC and the like still produce a vast array of the legacy node sizes (60nm, 20nm etc.) which won't be covered by this investment in US and EU fabs. We will still be reliant on Taiwan, China etc. for microcontrollers, logic chips and a lot of the glue that makes things work.

        You're not going to make micros for washing machines or car electronics modules in a 10B$ 3nm fab.

        Onshoring skills back to the US/EU/UK is no bad thing.

      2. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: The EU will be chuffed.

        "And once the US have onshored the entire Taiwanese chip industry, how safe will Taiwan be?"

        I don't stay up nights worrying about impossible things.

        There's many reasons why makers aren't building fabs and factories in the US. ITAR and having to deal with a brain dead State Department to get "permission" to sell their products is a big one. As if government employees have any clue about what is important to national security and what isn't. During the lock downs there was a big issue with getting parts for fighter jets from Mexico. Apparently, outsourcing components from foreign companies isn't an issue for critical systems to begin with. During WWII, the USSR was exporting plane loads of copied sensitive documents right under the noses of everybody that should have been concerned from the US under the guise of Lend-Lease. There's a nice segment on that in Richard Rhodes book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". If it's not a blind eye, it's the Russians being cleverer than they are given credit for being when it comes to getting their hands on things.

    3. MachDiamond Silver badge

      Re: The EU will be chuffed.

      "The US having spent years complaining about Chinese state funding, is now copying them. "

      Except in the US system, the company will go BK within two years and all of the IP and technology they developed with taxpayer money will be locked up in patents with no clear entity to talk to about licensing.

      I'd feel much better if there were "mini-patents" that only lasted a few years if the company has received any government grants, tax abatements or other consideration at all. If the company goes bankrupt or is sold, those patents expire.

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