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Businesses Intel The Almighty Buck Technology

Intel To Spend $20 Billion To Build Two New Chip Fabs In Arizona (cnbc.com) 59

Posted by BeauHD from the what-to-expect dept.
phalse phace writes: During today's "Intel Unleashed: Engineering the Future" webcast, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger gave an update on the company's future plans and developments, one of which includes a $20 billion investment to build two new chip fabs in Arizona.

The new factories are expected to "become a major provider of foundry capacity in the U.S. and Europe" to serve the global demand for semiconductor manufacturing. "To deliver this vision, Intel is establishing a new standalone business unit, Intel Foundry Services (IFS), led by semiconductor industry veteran Dr. Randhir Thakur. IFS will be differentiated from other foundry offerings with a combination of leading-edge process technology and packaging, committed capacity in the U.S. and Europe, and a world-class IP portfolio for customers, including x86 cores as well as ARM and RISC-V ecosystem IPs." "Gelsinger said the foundry business will compete in a market potentially worth $100 billion by 2025," reports CNBC. "A slide displayed by Intel suggested that companies including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm could be customers for the business."

The company is also partnering with IBM to improve chip logic and packaging technologies, which will "enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry and support key U.S. government initiatives."
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Intel To Spend $20 Billion To Build Two New Chip Fabs In Arizona More

Intel To Spend $20 Billion To Build Two New Chip Fabs In Arizona

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  • Asking for a friend.

  • Is Arizona the right place? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by magarity ( 164372 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @04:55PM (#61190742)

    So part of the chip shortage is due to drought, right, so maybe somewhere that isn't a desert would be a better choice?

    • Dang it! Beat me to it. My thoughts exactly.

    • hahaha, that problem is in Taiwan. Which strangely enough is surrounded by a whole ocean of water, maybe they should up their solar desalinization game eh?

    • Re:Is Arizona the right place? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Areyoukiddingme ( 1289470 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @06:01PM (#61190954)

      So part of the chip shortage is due to drought, right, so maybe somewhere that isn't a desert would be a better choice?

      No, none of the shortage is due to drought. TSMC was at pains to claim that they anticipate no slowdowns due to lack of water. Reservoirs are low, but not depleted, and they still anticipate the monsoon season arriving in time to refill them before water becomes an issue.

      It's a combination of many small factors causing the shortage, and it affects some industries more than others. The auto industry dug their own hole by severely reducing their orders, thinking that people wouldn't be buying as many cars. Meanwhile cryptocurrency miners, the release of two new game consoles, and the major rollout of 5G-capable phones are sucking up loads of fab space. Consumer spending has radically altered, though not permanently. But nobody went to Disney World last year, so they have literally thousands of surplus dollars. They're spending them on home improvements (new decks are in such demand that building supply companies are temporarily discontinuing higher end planking products in order to free up production capacity for high demand lower tier products) and electronic toys, from consoles to phones.

      And last but not least, specifically in the US, the Trump administration banned doing business with China's SMIC, a fab company responsible for 10% of global chip production. The cheap stuff that's in everything. Ten percent may not sound like much, but in a world of just-in-time inventories, it's a major displacement.

      And yeah, if the monsoon is late in Taiwan, TSMC could suddenly be in trouble, making the problem even worse before it gets better.

      As for the desert, chip fabs don't use so much water. There are many many industries which use much more. The available water is sufficient for their needs. Everybody is anxious to build in Arizona because Intel has 4 operating fabs there already, and has been operating fabs there since 1980. There's a local labor force and an established ecosystem of suppliers. Shenzhen, China has demonstrated how valuable having a local industrial supply chain can be, and chip manufacturers are eager to replicate that success. Arizona is the place for that in the US. The advantage is sufficient to outweigh the need for some clever engineering of water usage and hard bargaining to secure the supply.

      • AZ water declining but higher use lower returns industry like agriculture will be less able to afford as becomes more scarce. Very low flood risks and no tsunami. Lots of solar power. But as explained it is a big Center already so easier to expand there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      This is going to be the key. Also, the wind storms. But really water. Arizona gets half its water from ground water and a third from the Colorado river. The river water can be limited as lake mead dries up. That is to say that Arizona has no guarantee of water, and has only made it by radically conserving water. Now, it may be that a chip fab is not going to significantly change water usage, it in my e experience fabs require a lot of water.

    • Yeah, because water availability in Taipei has a whole lot to do with anything going on in Arizona.

  • The company is also partnering with IBM to improve chip logic and packaging technologies, which will "enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry and support key U.S. government initiatives."

    Maybe will bring back how to do this kind of packaging.

    IBM module [youtu.be]

  • So no outsourcing to TSMC? (Score:3)

    by Tailhook ( 98486 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @05:20PM (#61190828)

    This is going to look like a brilliant decision when we go to war with China and Intel is on US soil with two brand new 10 billion dollar fabs.

  • Maybe (Score:3)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @05:28PM (#61190852)

    Maybe they should invest $20B into developing something you'd actually want to buy first

    • I still can't figure out which of their security flaws are fixed in hardware, which are fixed in microcode, and which have no fixes at present.

      You'd think a clear page with all of that info listed in several tables by processor would exist. It does not appear to.

  • Not the worst choice (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CaptainLugnuts ( 2594663 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @05:38PM (#61190880)
    Arizona has cheap land, abundant solar energy, and low earthquake risks.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by serbanp ( 139486 )

      and no water, something that a silicon fab is using in large quantities

      • Re:Not the worst choice (Score:5, Informative)

        by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @06:07PM (#61190972)

        Actually, Arizona has water management plans with large reserves kept as ground water

        We actually take treated effluent and pump it into the ground, then pump it out downstream, treat it and use it for drinking water

        FYI, we also work closely with fabs to both supply needed resources and monitor them closely to assure they are not polluting common resources

      • Re:Not the worst choice (Score:5, Informative)

        by Hodr ( 219920 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @06:17PM (#61190990) Homepage

        Intel builds out water reclamation plants for each of their Fabs in the US where they claim to return near 100% of the water used directly back to the aquifer.

      • Phoenix gets water ultimately from the Colorado river, so basically the same place they'd get it from if they had chosen California, just upstream a ways. And without the earthquakes. Or fires. The vast majority of water used by a chip fab just goes right back into the river when they're done with it anyhow.
      • Water, unlike the weather, can be piped in. That's why you can eat tomatoes from the Imperial Valley.

      • Yeah, because Motorola and Intel haven't operated fabs in Chandler for literally decades.

        They might know a few things about sourcing water in Arizona from already operating there for a really long time.

    • Yeah, and Intel already makes chips there, so it makes sense to expand rather than move somewhere else. My uncle makes chips for Intel back home in AZ. I'm pretty happy that AZ is continuing to grow in tech manufacturing. I think it's a good industry for us. And, as you indicate, natural disasters are almost nonexistent in AZ. We don't get tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanos, and forest fires are limited to the areas that are actually forested. Our biggest disasters are usually our endl

  • Not in Massachusetts anymore (Score:4, Informative)

    by stevel ( 64802 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @08:04PM (#61191264) Homepage

    The CNBC article says "Intel currently operates four factories, called “wafer fabs,” in the United States. In addition to its site in Arizona, which is being expanded, it also has fabs in Massachusetts, New Mexico and Oregon. It also makes chips in Ireland, Israel and has a single fab in China."

    The Hudson, Massachusetts fab was once DEC's, where Alpha (and VAX) processors were made. DEC sold the site to Intel as part of a patent infringement settlement. Intel ran the fab for many years later, even though it was not a "copy exactly" operation, it did very well. Eventually it became unworkable to keep updating the Hudson fab and it was demolished a few years ago. Intel still has engineering offices there.

  • Large quantities are needed for chip fabrication.

    Where is all this water going to come from in Arizona? The already overdrawn Colorado River? Groundwater? Where?

  • Over 2 decades ago, around 1999 Intel began construction of an enormous dual fab facility on the north side of Colorado Springs, to be ready for production in 2001. Indeed the buildings were completed, but changes in the global supply chain caused Intel to shelve populating the building with equipment. Simultaneously, the city was excited at the prospect of thousands of clean room jobs and so University of Colorado spun up a chip fabrication training program to teach students all about chip manufacture, to

  • Let's see if Biden does anything to support this effort, or is just going to fund building more windmills and trains to nowhere.

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