Big "US" Semiconductor Facility going up in Phoenix!

by DButch

Community

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Friday, Dec. 05, 2025 Friday, Dec. 05, 2025 at 8:54:42am PST

I just opened up the Seattle Times this morning to find an article about a huge semiconductor factory going up in Phoenix. Unfortunately, the title in the Business section is more than a bit of buzzkill, titled:.

Chip factories are hard to build in U.S.

The actual prime contractor is (wait for it) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., investing $165 billion — continuing...

Scores of other companies, some of them American but many from East Asia, have set up their own local factories to supply TSMC with everything it needs, from chemicals and components to construction and engineering.

Collectively, they have invested $40 billion in the local economy.

So — when does ICE swoop in to ‘F things up like they did with Hyundai and Kia a little while back?

Oh yeah — the article also mentions:

Tangled processes sow confusion, delay and uncertainty, tending to reinforce inertia, discourage development.

(my Translation): We Americans need to go back to kindergarten before we can be trusted with the big boy tools. Not too surprising, actually.

By the time I graduated from college and joined DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) a lot of small components were already being sourced to Japan and then Taiwan (resistors, diodes, etc.). We made early integrated circuit chips and boards. Then the simpler IC’s got outsourced, etc. Over 4 decades reinforced the transformation and made the supply chain VERY long and complex. Welcome to the future we made — and find a shovel to start digging out.