The United States has finally got its act together in the global “war” of semiconductors

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The United States has finally got its act together in the global
the united states has finally got its act together in

Among the many lessons left by the pandemic, one of the most relevant, in the technology sector, is the risk that excessive dependence on foreign chip production entails. Its role, after all, is key in a wide range of devices. In the United States they have taken good note and want to make a move. A very big one. And face, especially face.

The American multinational Micron Technology has just announced an ambitious investment program of up to 100,000 million dollars to build what, presumed, will be “the largest facility dedicated to the manufacture of semiconductors in the history of the United States.”

Its plans are to deploy its investment over the next 20 years —starting with a first phase of 20,000 million that will last until the end of this decade— with a clear objective: to set up a giant complex in Clay, a town in the county of Onondaga, upstate New York, which will complement the factory that has already been announced for Idaho.

Strengthen the muscle of the country

“The facility could include four 600,000-square-foot clean rooms [unas 5,5 hectáreas], which would be a total of 2.4 million square feet, the size of about 40 American football fields,” he stresses. The multinational calculates that the initiative will generate almost 50,000 jobs in New York and frames the investment effort in its strategy to increase the national manufacturing of DRAM until it represents 40% of its global production.

The announcement comes at a key moment, after the US has approved a law that seeks precisely to boost US chip production with an attractive incentive hook: about 52,000 million dollars in grants and subsidies for the country to strengthen its producing muscle. of semiconductors based on new factories and expansions.

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Micron’s own CEO has recognized, picks up CNBC, that the law has influenced.

They were not the only ones in showing its intention to bet on the US sector in recent months. At the beginning of August, Qualcomm announced that it will spend 4.2 billion more on semiconductor chips from the GlobalFoundries factory in New York, Intel proposed a major investment in Ohio at the beginning of 2022, and Samsung launched a similar message in Texas in November.

The United States has seen with concern how much has become for the industry, given its weight in the manufacture of a wide range of devices; but also with a clear strategic reading—and the interruptions in the supply chain derived from the health crisis did not serve to soften that feeling.

Political tensions between China and Taiwan, headquarters of the giant TSMC, are now added to the complex scenario created by the pandemic. In August, the general director of the company already warned that if the conflict intensifies he would be forced to paralyze their factories. Two months have passed since then, but relations are still considerably complicated and strained.

The semiconductor crisis has confronted the sector with a complex scenario that still has consequences today. as pointed out New York Times, the scenario is different from a year or two ago and the lockdowns linked to the pandemic in China, the war in Ukraine and inflation are being felt in demand. IDC forecasts a 13% drop in PC shipments this year, and Micron itself has seen its sales and profits fall during its most recent quarter.

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Its new commitment to the US, encouraged by the country’s own strategy, however, points beyond the current cycle, to a horizon that —acknowledges the firm itself— is outlined decades view.