US To Launch $5 Billion Research Hub To Stay Ahead in Chip Race

President Joe Biden's administration plans to launch a $5 billion semiconductor research consortium to bolster chip design and hardware innovation in the US and counter China's efforts to capture the cutting edge of the industry. From a report: Officials on Friday are set to formally establish the National Semiconductor Technology Center, or NSTC, which marks the second major research and development investment from the 2022 Chips Act following a $3 billion advanced packaging initiative. The consortium plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into workforce development and intends to open funding applications in early March for research grants, Commerce Undersecretary for Standards and Technology Dr. Laurie E. Locascio said in an interview with Bloomberg News. Officials are working to prevent China from benefiting from NSTC-funded research while filling gaps in the US research ecosystem for key areas like packaging and hardware, she said, as electronic components have become a key US-China battleground.

pathetic

[snowshovelboy]

For comparison, we sent 75 billion to Ukraine, and between 1951 and 2022, Israel received $225.2 billion in US military aid.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Conservatives agreeing with Bernie Sanders? https://truthout.org/articles/... [truthout.org]

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[aitikin]

...between 1951 and 2022, Israel received $225.2 billion in US military aid.

That sounds incredibly low to me, tbh. But checking independent sources puts it closer to that than I was thinking.

Re:pathetic

[timeOday]

Pathetic in which direction? Destroying russia as a military power simply by writing a check is a once-in-a-lifetime bargain for the US, especially now that they're an active imperial power annexing neighbors. Pay now or pay more later. At this moment we are complete idiots for letting our foot off the gas pedal.

The government doesn't need to fund all chip development, just put its finger on the scale of the marketplace enough to tip its locus here so we aren't wide open to being exploited.

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[snowshovelboy]

I could really care less about Russia being a military power or not. I thought Obama said we were friends with Russia and that the cold war called and wants its diplomacy back.

Re:pathetic

[timeOday]

Russia deciding to be forcefully expansionist is what killed that. It's really too bad.

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[wyHunter]

And Ukraine took security guarantees from the US and Russia not to join NATO. Belarus is also close to Russia. The Poles? OF COURSE they wanted not to be in Russian orbit - and NATO would also protect them somewhat from the Germans.

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[snowshovelboy]

Right, because that's something my taxes should be spent on. Making sure Russia, a country on the other side of the world with 1/10th the military budget of the US, doesn't expand its borders.

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[ArchieBunker]

Do you think Russia would stop after Ukraine?

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[snowshovelboy]

If Europe doesn't care enough to pay for it, why should I? I don't presume to know whats best for Europe better than Europeans themselves.

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[blahabl]

WTF does this have about what Europe wants? It's in US' best interest to keep Europeans out of Russian sphere of influence. If I thought it'd be possible for the US to stand on its own, without allies, in the coming confrontation with all those who want to end Pax Americana, then I'd be all for letting those smug European assholes get buttraped by russia. As it turns out however, US has to protect these morons, because it needs them.

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[snowshovelboy]

It's in US' best interest to keep Europeans out of Russian sphere of influence.

Medical debt is the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the US. We are spending our money to defend Germany, allowing them to provide a college education to all their citizens instead of supporting a vast standing army. We are spending our money to defend France, allowing them to provide health care for their citizens. We are spending our money to defend Ukraine, allowing them to have nationalized health care on paper while their leaders embezzle it all. These arrangements are not in the best interest of the ma

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[Thoth Ptolemy]

B-b-b-but what about this irrelevant thing that's being used in bad faith!? Thanks Obama.

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[snowshovelboy]

Apologies. I wasn't trying to use it in bad faith. I was trying to use it for comedic effect.

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[PPH]

For comparison, we sent 75 billion to Ukraine

That's cheap when you consider that the alternative might be the loss of American lives in another European war to counter Putler's continued Westward drive. If Ukranians are willing to die for the cause in exchange for guns and ammo, I say we support them.

Israel? That's the price we have to pay to guarantee the participation of our religious right wing in some imaginary future Armageddon war. If they want to die over there, I say let them. The world will be a better place.

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[PPH]

he's a really nice guy and just misunderstood by the west

He only wants peace. A piece of Ukraine. A piece of Poland. A piece of Finland ....

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[wyHunter]

You know, I haven't seen the interview yet either and probably won't be bothered. Putin is too smart of an operator to be caught by the likes of Tucker Carlson or any American so-called journalist. I think the man's a monster - and even though I think that's true of most world leaders this one really *is* one. The entire world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket. Sometimes I miss the days of the cold war when the US and USSR kept their client states under control more effectively. But it didn't se

Re:pathetic

[smoot123]

For comparison, we sent 75 billion to Ukraine, and between 1951 and 2022, Israel received $225.2 billion in US military aid.

That's as may be but $5 billion for research is still an enormous sum. I assume this money isn't going to be spent spinning up a new full scale fab (although it might need to buy or build a beyond-state-of-the-art lithography machine and the list price on them is $250 million).

If it's just paying researcher salaries, that's a boatload of money.

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[haruchai]

"For comparison, we sent 75 billion to Ukraine"
It wasn't big pallets of cash like what had been sent to bribe warlords in Iraq or Afghanistan; it was stockpiles of armaments that mostly had been sitting around for years & can be replaced, preferably with newer stuff, or not replaced at all.

"Stay" ahead?

[AmiMoJo]

The US is behind Europe's ASML, whose cutting edge equipment is used by Taiwan's TSMC.

What is the best the US has? Intel?

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[jacks smirking reven]

To be fair the US has pretty much all the top chip design firms; NVidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Meta, Google, Apple

If the goal of this is to counter China the top process firms are not US based (as you said Intel is the only American company that has anything close to advanced fabs) but most of them are at least in the US ally sphere (ASML, TSMC, Canon, Nikon, Samsung, etc) but this is a good step as it would be good to have a domestic source for those advanced machines and processes.

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[AmiMoJo]

That's true, although Huawei seems to be able to develop some pretty good chips.

Chinese GPUs are getting decent too. Driver support is still a bit limited in terms of the number of games that play well, but performance of the hardware is rapidly improving.

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[DrMrLordX]

ASML only provides the optics necessary for modern silicon fabrication. EUV and High NA EUV. They don't actually fab or design chips.

It's likely that the Biden administration doesn't really understand that distinction either.

ASML being leapfrogged by China is not likely in the near or extended future. This initiative seems more aimed at keeping American foundries (which is basically just Intel and maybe Globalfoundries, though GF is now a secondary player in the pureplay foundry sector) ahead of SMIC. A

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[AmiMoJo]

I forgot about Japan. It sounds like Canon has some pretty competitive tech now too, and it is even lower cost.

Two Stories

[bill_mcgonigle]

Joe Biden: $5 billion.
Sam Altmann: $5 trillion.

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[Thoth Ptolemy]

Only knows one type of chip.

Chip from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers?

Dark Brandon awesomeness confirmed.

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[haruchai]

||Chip from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers?
Who were dressed like Indiana Jones & (original) Magnum P.I.

What Are the Specific Goals?

[organgtool]

I've read the article (non-paywalled version here [yahoo.com]) and unfortunately I have little confidence in this initiative. I have yet to read anything that describes specific goals for this new organization. So far, it's just taking $5 billion of taxpayer money and creating a new government organization responsible for doling out that money to private companies, many of whom are already very wealthy and fairly entrenched in research.

I'm certainly not against government funding for research, but I believe the re

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[gtall]

I tend to agree. I'd rather they take the $5 billion and put it into grants for STEM students, and make them take some liberal arts so they don't come out artificially intelligent.

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[haruchai]

"it's just taking $5 billion of taxpayer money and creating a new government organization responsible for doling out that money to private companies, many of whom are already very wealthy and fairly entrenched in research"
That's the American Way (tm)

My reading

[JThundley]

US capitalism can't compete China's socialism, so we're fighting back with our own socialism.

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[wyHunter]

If the US were capitalist and China were socialist we might be able to...just sayin'