Can Biden Invoke The "Defense Production Act" For Our 'Alarming' Chip Shortages?.....

[global1]

It seems to me that we're at the critical point in this chip shortage crisis.

If he can invoke the 'Defense Production Act' to begin to allay this problem - he should do it sooner and not later.

[pwb]

1. Check the trash or car junk yards.

Maybe we should reuse or recycle if chips can be updated somehow? We have a chip plant locally. It pays very well and is expanding. Building these plants required skilled labor to construct. Nobody is sitting around at the Union hall.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

2. It wouldn't help

It would take years and billions of dollars to setup. The Intel plant that was just announced won't be producing anything until 2025 at the earliest, and they are just making the silicon wafer that the chips are made of. There are more steps beyond that, none of which are simple, all of which require expensive and complicated machines, specially constructed facilities, and a highly trained workforce.

[global1]

5. Oh - Ok - Let's Put A Man On The Moon....

My sarcasm is kicking in here. Sorry.

I still see this as we are Americans and when a crisis arises - we seem to be able to put the pedal to the metal and get things done.

When we put our mind to it - we did get a man on the moon.

During WWII a lot of war production needs were achieved at a very fast pace.

There's got to be some facilities in this country right now that can be modified to move this along faster.

If I was the President now - I wouldn't take what you stated in your post and just wait around till 2025.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

8. Domestic production is a good idea

Don't think that I don't believe that. I do, and I think we should start domestic production as soon as possible. But starting now will do nothing to impact the shortage we face in the near term.

Look up the process to manufacture a modern microchip. This isn't like WW2 or even the moon landing. Tech has changed and gotten far more complicated. The computer used on the Apollo used early microchips. They had 6 transistors on them. The current iPhone has 15 billion transistors in its chip. Will and determination only get you so far and for a complex process that is modern microchip manufacturing, some stuff just can't be sped up. Speeding things up can cause quality issues and sloppiness. And this manufacturing process is so precise that a single speck of dust can ruin it.

I would applaud if DPA was used for domestic microchip production, but I would not expect to have any impact on supply for years.

[EastMeetsWest]

12. I just watched a video about chip production at TSMC

It was either a Frontline or an Australian program. Anyway, the technology and factory conditions required for today's chip factories are just incredibly complex-- they have to be so clean, for example, that contamination the equivalent of a grain of sand in 3 Olympic-size swimming pools might be enough to mess everything up

[WHITT]

3. Yep

Shoulda been done long ago.

Remember, these are last-generation chips. At this point, Biden could even offer one of the chip manufactures, anywhere on the planet, to contribute large amounts of money towards their next generation chip machines, if they would give us one of their old ones. We could have it spitting out chips in short order.

[former9thward]

10. No.

If it were that easy U.S. companies would be falling all over themselves doing it.

[WHITT]

14. No They Wouldn't

These are LAST GENERATION chips. No company wants to spend enormous amounts of money to produce what in a few short years will only require low volume production for repair purposes, as new car manufacturers move on to next generation chips.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Only If The Chips Are US Made

I don't believe retooling a chip manufacturing line is a simple switchover.
Probably very costly & time consuming.
If those chips are made on foreign soil, the DPA is useless.

[global1]

6. Could The DPA Be Invoked To Get The Monies To Do What Was Suggested In Reply #3?...nt

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Seems Reasonable

I do think that poster is overly optimistic regarding the timeline, though.
But, it sounds like a reasonable idea.
I'm not sure what limits are inside of the DPA. I'd bet it's not 100% at the discretion of the executive.

[WHITT]

16. The POTUS Has Complete Authority

in regards to the DPA. The only limitation could be funding. I don't know if there are limits and what the parameters might be. Being at war is obviously different from not being able to purchase the vehicle you want. But even if he had to go to Congress for the money, the Repubs would be crazy to block it, as it would be political suicide.

[orwell]

9. Not feasible...

...this would not work with chip fabs.

They are highly complex with huge lead times to tool and manufacture.

The most advanced chips, the 2-5 nm process are made in Taiwan by TSMC.

There are a lot of fabs being built worldwide right now with some actually in the United States. Intel, TSMC, and Samsung are all building US fabs, partially due to incentives from the Biden administration. Most of those are at least 3-5 years away from completion.

The more likely scenario is that as Covid gets under control the chip shortage will start to dissipate.

[EastMeetsWest]

13. Sony and TSMC are teaming up to build a chip foundry in Japan

[WHITT]

15. You're Conflating A Chip PLANT

with a one-off fab operation.

A plant requires a lot if money and time because you want to manufacture a wide variety of chips, including the next generation of chips.

A one-off fab operation manufacturing existing last generation chips which will soon be relegated to low volume repair-only sales does not.

[Polybius]

11. Why, so you can finally get that PlayStation 5?