A feud is heating up between Arizona workers and the world’s leading chipmaker after the company claimed the US doesn’t have the skills to build its new factory::TSMC wants to bring in foreign reinforcements to get its Arizona factory running because it claims there aren’t enough qualified local workers.
My understanding is that this isn’t even about making the semiconductors, this is just about building the factory in the first place. In this case, Taiwan’s expertise in making chips means fuck all.
Gamers Nexus recently did a really good video about paying contractors to build out their acoustic testing chamber. In theory, that is just “put foam on the walls” but they go into everything ranging from which spikes are foam versus metal, how cabling and ventilation are run, and even what is under the floor.
And that is where the expertise comes into play. Theoretically, any competent contractor can follow instructions and build a fab. If you ever meet a competent contractor, protect them with your life.
The reality is that TSMC is going to be constantly having to fly out their people to inspect construction work, indicate what needs to be redone, etc. At which point… why are they paying others to do stuff they need to redo anyway?
Modern fabs are some of the most complex things on the planet. They need to be if they are operating at the nanometer scale (let alone sub 10 nm scale… even accounting for the shenanigans that are used to define those scales for marketing purposes).)