News Intel Considering German Fab Near Munich

[USAFRet]

Agreed. Manufacturing locations aren't chosen to save on shipping. It was bignastyid arguing that the chips needed to be manufactured locally in case there were disruptions in the global shipping, not me.

But also, not necessarily 'shipping', which WAS a consideration with the Rona, but local production.

Malaysia, Texas, Munich....have things all over.

 

[bignastyid]

Agreed. Manufacturing locations aren't chosen to save on shipping. It was bignastyid arguing that the chips needed to be manufactured locally in case there were disruptions in the global shipping, not me.

I was saying countries were wanting this and that's why there were trying to get fab plants. Local supply is just one of the many reasons.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/17/sem...oy-wartime-like-efforts-to-win-chip-race.html

 

[Co BIY]

Clearly workforce considerations on both ends. Localities and countries want their workforces to be involved in cutting edge, innovative and critical technologies and multinational corporate giants want a workforce with skills equal to their costs.

You can get high-skilled workers at high cost (Germany, US, Japan, Korea) and they are profitable.

You can get low skilled workers at low cost and they are profitable.

Sometimes an area just has every skilled person working already and it creates a need to expand somewhere else. I would not be surprised if this is a factor in Taiwan like it is in some parts of the US.

The idea that local production of silicon chips would be environmentally advantageous because of reduced shipping is ridiculous. It makes sense for firewood or watermelons but the only thing more easily transportable than an IC is software.

 

[Co BIY]

Packaging is alot easy to change/adapt should the need arise.

That does not appear to be the case currently.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/chip-packaging-affect-supply-processors

Probably because packaging is a secondary tier of the business and the smaller companies don't have the capital depth of the big companies like Intel, TSMC and Samsung.