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USAToday Column
July 30, 2020 FOSTER CITY, Calif. – As much as I love writing about (and using!) cool new technologies, like 5G, or slick new products, like Lenovo’s new X1 Fold foldable PC, there are times when it’s important to step back and look at some bigger picture issues. One of the most important, and most timely, is directly related to the tech industry and the products and services it enables. The problem is, it’s hidden behind the scenes where most consumers would never bother to look: semiconductor chip manufacturing. While most everyone knows that chips from U.S.-based companies like Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Apple and others power the devices we all know and love – as well as the cloud-based servers that stream Netflix and Disney+ shows to our screens, deliver our emails, host our videoconferences and much more – very few people bother to think about where they all come from. Well, one of the many things that the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear is that supply chains – that is, the network of companies that make parts or help distribute a product or service – are not as robust as they need to be. In addition, they are far too reliant on foreign suppliers. As a result, there has been a great deal of discussion, both within the government and across private industry, about how to increase the viability of U.S.-based supply chains, particularly for the tech products upon which our entire society has now clearly become so dependent. Some of this relates to the growing desire to bring more manufacturing back to the U.S. across several industries, but in the case of tech products and chips especially, there are also potentially serious national security concerns at stake. Given the harsh current geopolitical environment and the battles between the U.S. and China on tech-based advances, these issues have quickly been recognized as critically important across all political party lines. Part of the problem is that, in practical terms, only about 12% of the world’s semiconductor chips are currently made in the U.S., down from 37% in 1990, and the Chinese government is currently making aggressive subsidized investments in building over 60 semiconductor manufacturing plants (commonly called foundries or “fabs”, which is short for fabrication sites). In response to these efforts, new amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (the annual bill used to authorize military spending) were recently passed by both the House and Senate. These addendums provide a framework (but not the funding just yet) for creating multiple grants of up to $3 billion to U.S.-based chip manufacturing companies, including Intel, Global Foundries and Micron, or even U.S.-based branches of other large chipmakers, such as South Korean-based Samsung, to build or expand chip manufacturing facilities here in the U.S. In addition, the addendums would provide support for semiconductor-based research grants to U.S. universities or private companies, either directly or through agencies like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Finally, there’s also the call for the creation of a National Semiconductor Technology Center, which could serve as a clearinghouse and organizational control point for U.S.-based chip manufacturing, as well as a critical new research and development facility. The potential benefits of these efforts could be enormous. Not only are there the obvious economic advantages associated with creating new highly skilled jobs as part of building new manufacturing sites or funding new research efforts, there’s also the practical value of decreasing our dependence on foreign chip manufacturers. One of the great things about the proposed efforts is that U.S.-based semiconductor companies of all sizes could leverage the benefits, whether they are the big name businesses mentioned earlier, lesser-known companies like Marvell, Xilinx or Texas Instruments, or even smaller players like Lattice Semiconductor, Silicon Labs or NI (formerly known as National Instruments). The U.S. has been and continues to be the clear leader in the technologies that go into the chips at the heart of not only computing devices but also medical equipment, wireless networks, cars, manufacturing equipment, and virtually every industry that’s now in existence. It only makes sense, therefore, to increase the amount of research and manufacturing support that the industry needs in order to maintain that lead and grow its share of global manufacturing, particularly as we make our way into a technology-driven future. Let’s hope our government representatives continue to move these efforts forward. (To learn more, the Semiconductor Industry Association has put together a great document that explains the issue in more detail that you can access here.) Here’s a link to the original column: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2020/07/30/why-semiconductor-chip-making-based-u-s-critical/5536083002/ USA TODAY columnist Bob O'Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. His clients are major technology firms including Microsoft, HP, Dell, and Intel. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech. |
