Intel building $20B Ohio chip facility amid global shortage

[TexasTowelie]

Source: AP

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Intel will invest $20 billion in a new computer chip facility in Ohio amid a global shortage of microprocessors used in everything from phones and cars to video games.

The U.S. share of the worldwide chip manufacturing market has declined from 37% in 1990 to 12% today, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, and shortages have become a potential risk.

Two chip factories on the 1,000 acre site in Licking County, just east of Columbus, are expected to create 3,000 company jobs and 7,000 construction jobs, and to support tens of thousands of additional jobs for suppliers and partners, the company and local and state officials announced Friday.

It is the largest single private-sector investment in Ohio's history, on par with an agreement in 1977 that brought Honda to central Ohio, where it now employs more than 14,000 people.

Read more: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/ap-online/2022/01/21/intel-building-20b-ohio-chip-facility-amid-global-shortage

[GB_RN]

1. Glad To See Some Manufacturing Come Back...

Especially tech. No way this should be left in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (or anywhere near where they can get their hands on it).

[oldsoftie]

6. ABSOLUTELY! And add medicine to that list. Ridiculous.

Its just plain STUPID that we get almost ALL our antibiotics from China

[GB_RN]

10. As A Nurse...

I've been screaming for years that medicine/medical supplies should be brought back here. Just for the sake of corporate bottom lines, to leave our critical production in the hands of a country with an adversarial government that could take that production hostage, is just insane - and a national security issue. For some reason, no one in the government seems to see it that way.

[keep_left]

18. It's because of what's taught in business schools around the nation...

...among other things. The shareholder-first ideology is king (Thom Hartmann has discussed this many times). I've witnessed it myself (i.e. family). The Intel fab in Ohio is a good first step, but changing the outsourcing of America will be an uphill fight. BTW, the next step in medicine is to try replacing anything that can be replaced with robots (lab techs, med techs, low-skill nursing).

[bucolic_frolic]

2. With so many empty factories, why not renovate an old one?

[TexasTowelie]

3. Considering the environmental controls necessary in the microchip manufacturing industry

Last edited Fri Jan 21, 2022, 09:54 AM - Edit history (1)

it is almost definitely cheaper to start with a new facility than renovate something older.

[VWolf]

4. The article doesn't mention the fab process,

but if it's 180nm or less, which is very likely, you're absolutely right. The clean rooms need to be immaculate.

Aside: They're building it in Licking County. Let the jokes fly!

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Chip synthesis is absolutely the peak of manufacturing tech in the world

Clean rooms with a process so dialed in it seems impossible. This is incredibly hard to accomplish and get up and running, and the margins are all in how well the process ends up running. It will take years to get it right, but am glad to see this type of thing.

[GB_RN]

14. Intel Just Bought New Fabricating Machines...

For the latest fabrication processes, which are smaller than that. Intel's smallest architecture is currently 7nm, but these fabricators will allow them to scale down.

TSMC, which makes Apple's chips, is manufacturing on 5nm for the M1 Pro/M1 Max. The M2 is suspected to be on the 3nm scale.

[WillUSAF]

7. Great to see, but....

Personally I would have love to see it come to Northeast Ohio (Cleveland area)..we could have really used the bump in manufacturing here.

[womanofthehills]

15. The plant needs to be built far from residential homes because of emissions & wells

NM Rio Rancho Intel expanding - Oct 2021

“It takes a lot of chemicals and a lot of water to make even faster, smaller computer chips.
And that is what Intel, the mega-chip maker that sprawls above the western bluff overlooking Corrales, plans to do with the massive $3.5 billion retooling of its 350,000-square-foot Sandoval County facility. The giant company will turn the plant into a hub for advanced semiconductor manufacturing of stacking microprocessors. Production of the first fingernail-sized chip is projected for late 2022.

What’s Going on With Intel?

Intel has perched above the western bluff overlooking Corrales for about 40 years. Some residents who have lived, or currently live, in the east low-lying areas of Corrales and Rio Rancho, have had to deal with water issues such as wells dropping and air quality issues. Since at least the early 1990s, these residents have publicly raised concerns about odors and health problems that they say are attributed to Intel’s air emissions.

In 2004, with the urging of the state Environment Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, the Community Environmental Working Group was formed to promote community dialog and to advocate for continuous environmental improvements at Intel’s New Mexico plant. The group includes Intel representatives, members from Clean Air For All Now (formerly called Corrales Residents For Clean Air and Water) along with other community members. CEWG does not have any real control over Intel but has been able to have discussions with the company about their concerns.

Yet, odor and health complaints continue to roll in. And nearby residents have concerns that, when the plant ramps up, emissions will increase. At the Oct. 20 meeting of the Community Environmental Working Group, Intel representatives handled some tough questions about recent developments as the mega-computer company moves forward with its plans.”



https://abq.news/2021/10/intel-moves-forward-with-making-tiny-chips-and-using-lots-of-water/

[Farmer-Rick]

8. So the filthy rich are moving a bit of manufacturing back into the US?

The crash of 2008 saw the remains of most manufacturing moved out of the US.

Not sure why a bit of it is moving back. The capitalist kings have decided to let China and India do most of our necessary manufacturing for cheap. So, I really don't think this is a trend to move manufacturing back to the US, especially since the federal government still gives corporations tax dodges for moving businesses and profits off shore.

Maybe it's just for show. The article says the corporation will invest, so it hasn't happened yet.

[question everything]

13. The White House Just announced it

[womanofthehills]

17. NM Intel is expanding

What’s New: Intel Corporation will invest $3.5 billion to equip its New Mexico operations for the manufacturing of advanced semiconductor packaging technologies, including Foveros, Intel’s breakthrough 3D packaging technology. The multiyear investment is expected to create at least 700 high-tech jobs and 1,000 construction jobs and support an additional 3,500 jobs in the state. Planning activities begin immediately, with construction expected to start in late 2021. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/new-mexico-manufacturing.html#gs.n4hhp2

[Farmer-Rick]

19. Well let's hope it's a harbinger of things to come.

[LittleGirl]

9. This is a positive move

Bringing chip manufacturing to the states. Keep ‘em coming in-house so to speak. This is a national security issue.

[oldsoftie]

11. That's exactly what it is; a national security issue.

There should be some things that, by law, MUST be made here. Another example; the huge transformers that run our electrical grid. They're made in SK & it take a LONG time to make them. If we ever had an EMP event, we'd be in deep shit quickly.

[LittleGirl]

12. Exactly! eom

[womanofthehills]

16. NM is on this - because they are adding so much wind power to grid

90’ to 140’ transmission lines plus transformers going up all over the place. Except most of the new electricity generated is going out of state. Problem is that so much of NM land is government owned, like White Sands Missile Range, bird refuges, national parks and forest - so transmission lines are placed on private property. I know this first hand as I have two 90 foot wind transmission lines crossing my 40 acres.