Intel: Upcoming U.S. Fab Will Be a Small City, to Cost $60 - $120 Billion

[Lightwreather]

Summary

 Intel reveals additional details about forthcoming fab complex.

 

  

 

Quotes

Quote

Intel has revealed some additional details about its upcoming brand-new fab complex in the U.S. Patrick Gelsinger, chief executive of Intel, said that the new fab campus will cost between $60 billion and $120 billion, will include multiple modules capable of processing wafers using Intel’s advanced process technologies, and chip packaging facilities. The company aims to build it adjacent to a university to simplify hiring of new personnel. 

As part of its IDM 2.0 strategy, Intel is set to make decision about the exact location of its next major semiconductor manufacturing hub in the U.S by the end of this year. The fab will include between six and eight modules that will produce chips using the company’s leading-edge fabrication processes, will be able to package chips using Intel’s proprietary techniques like EMIB and Foveros, and will also run a dedicated power plant, Pat Gelsinger said in an interview with the Washington Post.  

Each semiconductor fabrication module will cost between $10 billion and $15 billion, so Intel’s investments into the hub over the next decade could be as ‘low’ as $60 billion and could top $120 billion.

“We are looking broadly across the U.S.,” Gelsinger told the Washington Post. “This would be a very large site, so six to eight fab modules, and at each of those fab modules, between 10- and $15 billion. It's a project over the next decade on the order of $100 billion of capital, 10,000 direct jobs. 100,000 jobs are created as a result of those 10,000, by our experience. So, essentially, we want to build a little city.”At this point Intel does not disclose which nodes the first module of the fab will support, yet since it is going to start operations sometime in 2024 at the earliest, the new facility will probably produce chips using the Intel 4 and the Intel 3 manufacturing technologies. Eventually, the fab complex will adopt more advanced fabrication technologies. Production capacity of the upcoming fab is unknown, so is its location. “We're engaging with a number of states across the United States today who are giving us proposals for site locations, energy, water, environmentals, near universities, skill capacity, and I expect to make an announcement about that location before the end of this year,” Gelsinger said.Earlier this year Intel outlined plans to spend $20 billion on advancing its manufacturing operations in Arizona. In addition, the company will announce a location for its brand new fab hub, such as those the company has in Arizona and Oregon.

 

My thoughts

 Well, This should be good news in regards to the current silicon shortage..... if it weren't for the fact that it does take a couple of years to build and then bring a fab online. However, additional fab capacity is still a good thing, especially since intel is now using it's fabs to manufacture chips for other companies (Qualcomm and Amazon (not too sure of this) Are supposedly confirmed customers). Building it near Universities might actually also be a smart decision. Well, we'll still have to wait and see how this plays out.

Sources

Washington Post

Tom's Hardware

[Moonzy]

Fabulous news

[Bombastinator]

Federal administration is going to like this one I think. There’s really a whole lot to like from that perspective. Would be even cooler for that crowd if it starts producing just before the next election.  Might be a bit too quick though.  

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, Moonzy said:

Fabulous news

Very punny.

 

On topic, Intel building themselves a new fab isn't going to remove much strain from everyone else since Intel only fab their own stuff. IMO its likely to have the opposite effect since Intels demand for raw materials is going to shoot up and put extra strain on the already breaking supply chain.

[Bombastinator]

8 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Very punny.

 

On topic, Intel building themselves a new fab isn't going to remove much strain from everyone else since Intel only fab their own stuff. IMO its likely to have the opposite effect since Intels demand for raw materials is going to shoot up and put extra strain on the already breaking supply chain.

Point.  There are lots of choke points and not all of them are assembly.   I am given to understand that one of the choke points is silicon wafers. A new fab would be a consumer not producer of those.

[WolframaticAlpha]

I can't lift my jaw up, after reading the 120 billion dollar amount

[Arika]

11 minutes ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

I can't lift my jaw up, after reading the 120 billion dollar amount

Fabs aren't cheap, that's why there's so few of them

[Wh0_Am_1]

11 minutes ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

I can't lift my jaw up, after reading the 120 billion dollar amount

That's modern fabs for you, that why one the main reasons why modern computers cost what they do, they have large facilities to pay off with a very short working life and there is a lot that can go wrong that does go wrong to make the working chip in your system all the more valuable since it does what it was designed to.

[Lightwreather]

4 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

[...] since Intel only fab their own stuff. [...]

Well, with IDM 2.0 , they're likely going to be fabbing fo others as well. However, the point you're making is still very valid

[Kisai]

4 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Point.  There are lots of choke points and not all of them are assembly.   I am given to understand that one of the choke points is silicon wafers. A new fan would be a consumer not producer of those.

Intel does not produce their own ingots or wafers.

https://www.intel.la/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/corporate-information/museum-transistors-to-transformations-brochure.pdf

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000015142/programs.html

 

The thing is, arguably, the ingots/wafers are probably the easiest thing to make in the process and are process-node agnostic. Intel uses 300mm wafers for everything, which is one foot in diameter.

 

Intel could, in theory make it's own ingots and wafers, thus insulating it from price fluctuations, or buy up domestic recycled material to make it, (though I don't know where you're going to reclaim it from)

 

https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2009/08/sand-to-chips---whats-the-real-story.html

And apparently it's not even "sand" that is used to make it, but already-pure ore.

 

So perhaps there is yet a way to recycle some domestic silica material (eg glass) into the purer grade need for chips.

 

https://greatforest.com/sustainability101/the-glass-recycling-problem/

Quote

Glass is heavy

Glass is heavy and expensive to transport. Faced with high costs, some communities are paying to have the glass specially crushed for use in construction. And while this is certainly a use for glass, it is not necessary the best use.

The market for glass has changed

Mandatory glass recycling programs in the 1980s flooded the market with recyclable glass, causing prices to drop. Over the past two decades, glass has also been replaced by aluminum and plastic for some products, leading to less demand. 

Quartz is the second most abundant mineral on earth and yet we deem it to cheap to recycle, but too expensive to turn into computer chips, so it gets dumped into concrete.

 

[Quinnell]

I'm just happy this is being built in the US and not China. 

[Moonzy]

2 hours ago, Quinnell said:

I'm just happy this is being built in the US and not China. 

have you considered manufacturing byproducts?

[Bombastinator]

3 hours ago, Kisai said:

Intel does not produce their own ingots or wafers.

https://www.intel.la/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/corporate-information/museum-transistors-to-transformations-brochure.pdf

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000015142/programs.html

 

The thing is, arguably, the ingots/wafers are probably the easiest thing to make in the process and are process-node agnostic. Intel uses 300mm wafers for everything, which is one foot in diameter.

 

Intel could, in theory make it's own ingots and wafers, thus insulating it from price fluctuations, or buy up domestic recycled material to make it, (though I don't know where you're going to reclaim it from)

 

https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2009/08/sand-to-chips---whats-the-real-story.html

And apparently it's not even "sand" that is used to make it, but already-pure ore.

 

So perhaps there is yet a way to recycle some domestic silica material (eg glass) into the purer grade need for chips.

 

https://greatforest.com/sustainability101/the-glass-recycling-problem/

Quartz is the second most abundant mineral on earth and yet we deem it to cheap to recycle, but too expensive to turn into computer chips, so it gets dumped into concrete.

 

Might have to do with being able to grow it.  Silicon for wafers is grown, quartz for concrete is mined. You can’t mine silicon for wafers. It’s not clean enough.

[Kisai]

21 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Might have to do with being able to grow it.  Silicon for wafers is grown, quartz for concrete is mined. You can’t mine silicon for wafers. It’s not clean enough.

I remember, somewhere, where someone said "glass is too expensive to recycle, we're better of grinding it up and dumping it in the ocean"

 

So if it's going into concrete and fiberglass, at least there is a place for it, just not enough of it recycled into useful products. 

 

I imagine there must be a way to get the materials pure enough without having to keep mining new quartz out of the ground. Though I also imagine this is again one of the "it's cheaper not to recycle" arguments. 

 

Kinda sucks that nobody wants to consider the environmental impact, and nobody will until their country is on fire or underwater.

[thechinchinsong]

Interesting to see where this project will end up. I'm just hoping they don't put it in a state with severe water issues since I've heard that fabs require a large amount of water.

[StDragon]

23 hours ago, Moonzy said:

have you considered manufacturing byproducts?

It's national security, even if it's not stated as such. The world needs decentralized production, redundancy, to ensure marketplace resiliency. Things aren't looking so stable in the Pacific in case you weren't paying attention lately.

[CephDigital]

On 8/7/2021 at 9:57 AM, Master Disaster said:

Very punny.

 

On topic, Intel building themselves a new fab isn't going to remove much strain from everyone else since Intel only fab their own stuff. IMO its likely to have the opposite effect since Intels demand for raw materials is going to shoot up and put extra strain on the already breaking supply chain.

Not entirely true. Didnt intel mention theyre going to take orders from other companies to produce chips like what TSMC does?

[Donut417]

On 8/7/2021 at 4:57 AM, Master Disaster said:

isn't going to remove much strain from everyone else since Intel only fab their own stuff.

Last I read Intel is opening up its fab capacity to others. I guess they don't make enough money and figure this is a way to do it. 

[Quackers101]

Would be cool on the tech side, more so if they are able to try something new and advance what they might know already.

if not, not sure what to make out of it then.

 

Also how many giga factories or fabs wants to be pushed. From tesla to others, and what does it mean at a global basis and if they will be adaptable for future changes or tech.

[Justaphysicsnerd]

Disney Land ≡(▔﹏▔)≡

Intel land *^____^*

[Heliian]

Well isn't this great news for prospective investors. 

 

That is all until they actually build something. 

[BuckGup]

I would love to see the internal approval process to spend $120 Billion. It also shows how fragile the world is.

[Quackers101]

8 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

I would love to see the internal approval process to spend $120 Billion. It also shows how fragile the world is.

120 billion for ++++14nm :P

hope its not something like that, not sure if intel have stated what they want.

[CarlBar]

27 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

I would love to see the internal approval process to spend $120 Billion. It also shows how fragile the world is.

 

Probably about the same as what you go through to buy a new washing machine or similar.

 

Done the math+googling, overestimated Intel's earning by about an order of magnitude. Equivalent is probably same as buying a new car, or maybe a really small holiday home. Equivalent to somthing costing 1.5 times your annual income.

[Bombastinator]

On 8/7/2021 at 12:54 PM, Moonzy said:

have you considered manufacturing byproducts?

What we seem to be learning about that is where the waste products are produced doesn’t matter much.  They cause a problem everywhere.  Hopefully they can be dealt with better in the US where environmental laws tend to be better enforced even if they aren’t actually any toothier.