Nvidia CEO: U.S. chipmakers at least a decade away from China supply chain independence

[buster]

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/29/nvidia-ceo-chipmakers-a-decade-away-from-china-independence.html

“We should absolutely go down the journey of it,” Huang said in an appearance at the New York Times’ DealBook Conference, referring to the Biden administration’s effort to delink China from U.S. chip supply. “But total independence of supply chain is not a real practical thing for a decade or two.”

Asked whether Nvidia should continue to do business with China, Huang said, “We’re a company that was built for business and so we try to do business with everybody we can. On the other hand, our national security matters and our national competitiveness matters.”

 

[alarmguy]

I’m glad it’s now out in the open and being dealt with. The seriousness of relying on China for anything critical is insane.

I actually take this as a positive as 10 years go by fast, and hopefully it stays in the spotlight, and might even be accelerated

 

[JeffKeryk]

Ceding chip development to China was one of the worst decisions ever made. FYI, the Silicon Valley semiconductor manufacturing equipment companies are highly restricted from shipping tools to China.

We have just begun to use smart technology in products; its use is about to explode. I have posted before about the current movement, Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0.

We cannot lose this race.

 

[Brons2]

We have just begun to use smart technology in products; its use is about to explode. I have posted before about the current movement, Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0.

how is this different from Digital Transformation version 1, 2, and 3? Datacenter...cloud....AI....now what?

signed,
super jaded tech bro
now cybersecurity

 

[wpod]

Our politicians allowed the off shoring of what I would call defense strategic manufacturing that is damaging to the security of this nation.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Our politicians allowed the off shoring of what I would call defense strategic manufacturing that is damaging to the security of this nation.

Started in the 80's. My career was in SEMI. Finally we are starting to re-onshore. Is the will here to do so?

 

[fantastic]

19 caused supply shortages & really hurt the auto makers. The chips & science act was an excellent step into allowing the US to get into that production in the US. Great that it's a reality now & I think the main spot is going to be somewhere in OH?

 

[JeffKeryk]

19 caused supply shortages & really hurt the auto makers. The chips & science act was an excellent step into allowing the US to get into that production in the US. Great that it's a reality now & I think the main spot is going to be somewhere in OH?

TSMC and Intel are building in Arizona, Intel in Ohio, there is much more. Just so you know, one wafer fab can be $10B to $20B. And the lifecycle of a high end chip can be short.

There is a huge obstacle; lack of qualified talent. TSMC recently scaled back their timeline because of this. China graduates far more engineers than we do. This has to change; it's more than bricks and mortar. Education is key. The question is, do we have the will?

By the way, the pandemic chip shortage was not so much about the raw chips; it was also about the requisite firmware. Tesla weathered the storm best because they were able to repurpose available chips. Expect to see car companies bring development in house; Ford opened a tech office in Palo Alto to leverage local talent. Things need to change because technology is the disrupter and differentiator.

 

[fantastic]

TSMC and Intel are building in Arizona, Intel in Ohio, there is much more. Just so you know, one wafer fab can be $10B to $20B. And the lifecycle of a high end chip can be short.

By the way, the pandemic chip shortage was not so much about the raw chips; rather it was the requisite firmware. Tesla weathered the storm best because they were able to repurpose available chips. Expect to see car companies bring development in house; Ford opened a tech office in Palo Alto to leverage local talent. Things need to change because technology is the disrupter and differentiator.

I don't know about that. There were semi-conductor shortages too. It was a "Shortage" of a physical item. Every part of the supply ecosystem was hit though. Good to hear they are building out new infrastructure to produce chips all over the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_chip_shortage_(2020–2023)

 

[Brons2]

China graduates far more engineers than we do. This has to change; it's more than bricks and mortar. Education is key. The question is, do we have the will?

China (and India) have far more people that we do. We would need to have a higher percentage of young people actually enrolling in these tough majors, than China does. I personally don't see that happening, we are pretty soft. And if it does, it will be mainly because of immigration from Asian countries.

My kid's elementary school is like 2/3rds Indian kids. We need to indoctrinate these kids, they are mainly the kids of all the India tech bros that have moved to our area.

 

[Pew]

There is a huge obstacle; lack of qualified talent. TSMC recently scaled back their timeline because of this. China graduates far more engineers than we do. This has to change; it's more than bricks and mortar. Education is key. The question is, do we have the will?

That's my main concern about opening fabs here now. Everyone I know that's in fab manufacturing and maintenance are all retirement age now and there hasn't been any employees to learn and replace them because everything but the designs went overseas. So now we've gotta figure out a way for schools to reteach fab manufacturing and fast track new employees in so they can learn as much as possible from the experienced, retiring workers. Or we can hope that importing experienced workers won't have a culture clash when working in an entirely different country.

The fabs in AZ are probably the best suited in the short term, with most of the Intel ones hopefully coming out of mothballing and employees from existing fabs there. I think Micron has had a presence in Idaho for sometime so that's good but I still think we're a good 10 years out before we can start to compete on the manufacturing.

 

[JeffKeryk]

That's my main concern about opening fabs here now. Everyone I know that's in fab manufacturing and maintenance are all retirement age now and there hasn't been any employees to learn and replace them because everything but the designs went overseas. So now we've gotta figure out a way for schools to reteach fab manufacturing and fast track new employees in so they can learn as much as possible from the experienced, retiring workers. Or we can hope that importing experienced workers won't have a culture clash when working in an entirely different country.

The fabs in AZ are probably the best suited in the short term, with most of the Intel ones hopefully coming out of mothballing and employees from existing fabs there. I think Micron has had a presence in Idaho for sometime so that's good but I still think we're a good 10 years out before we can start to compete on the manufacturing.

There was so much chip production here in Silicon Valley. We were constantly shipping chemical and plasma deposition, metal and plasma etch, metrology tools, etc to Intel and AMD in Santa Clara. My how things have changed...

 

[4WD]

https://www.chron.com/culture/article/texas-instruments-investment-chips-20383808.php