world mirror
Status: 02.10.2022 2:45 p.m
US President Biden wants to invest billions in reducing dependence on chip production in Asia – mainly because of the conflict with China. But the road to semiconductors “Made in America” is a long one.
Small-scale, America’s global race for technological supremacy begins in a stark, windowless Arizona classroom. Russell Dondero looks into tired eyes as he teaches his course participants the seriousness of the situation on a Wednesday morning at the end of September: In the factory, they have to be careful not to contaminate anything. “A speck of dust,” he says as he squeezes into a white full-body overall at the teacher’s desk, “can paralyze an entire production.”
If all goes well, the twelve men and women who are now sitting in front of Dondero, watching how work clothes are put on in the correct order, will soon be in similar overalls in an oversized factory of an American chip manufacturer. They have all signed up for a two-week crash course at Mesa Community College, a local technical college: in ten days they are to be trained as a so-called semiconductor technician.
Half of them have no prior technical experience, and some even only have a high school diploma. If you stick it out, you’re guaranteed a job interview.
In 12-hour shifts, they may one day maintain and repair the delicate robots that assemble semiconductors the size of a fingernail for around $25 an hour.
The international battle for the strategic chips
G. Engel, ARD Washington, T. Anthony, ARD Beijing, Weltspiegel, October 2, 2022
It starts with an awareness of the solution
“What you learn here is just the basics. It’s about developing an awareness of problem-solving,” says Dondero, after putting the participants in the same overalls he’s wearing and in front of a workbench full of nuts and provided wrenches.
After two days of theory in the mouse-grey classroom, the third day is spent in the laboratory for the first time. If US President Joe Biden had his way, it would all go a little faster.
China and the retail chains
American tech industry desperately needs skilled workers, and Biden needs American industry to keep China in check politically. In the conflict over Taiwan’s sovereignty, like his predecessor, he realized that Beijing cannot be relied on to stick to the rules. During the pandemic, it quickly became clear how much the retail chains across Asia can affect – and limit – life in the United States.
This was particularly noticeable in the electronics. Microchips are in phones, computers, refrigerators, cars, and also in American weapons systems. They have long been an integral part of everyday life.
The US used to have a 37 percent market share in manufacturing. It has shrunk to 12 percent. Production takes place in Asia, above all in Taiwan, which fears for its independence in the menacing shadow of China.
keep China at bay
In August, President Biden signed the CHIPS Act, a multi-billion dollar investment package that Democrats and Republicans have been working on together to keep China economically and militarily at bay.
This alone provides $52 billion in subsidies and tax incentives to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States. At large, America’s global catch-up for technological dominance is an expensive proposition.
Two factories for 20 billion euros
20 minutes by car from Dondero’s classroom, the American company Intel is building two new chip factories in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix in Arizona, in the middle of the desert. Together they cost 20 billion euros. The company promises several thousand well-paid jobs and millions of semiconductors “Made in America”.
She developed the crash course with the technical college in order to find capable people quickly and easily. The concept for the ten-day curriculum comes from Ken Hackler. He is program director for applied science at Mesa Community College.
The industry is experiencing an enormous boom and companies are finding it difficult to find enough people with sufficient experience to meet the demand. “They call us the Silicon Desert here! We started in the summer semester, and a new course starts every two weeks,” he says during the lunch break while walking across the campus. “We now have 1,000 people on the waiting list.”
It is still uncertain whether these course participants will ultimately get a place at the Chib factory in Arizona. But the project itself is doomed to success.
Image: ARD Washington
Hoping for better opportunities for advancement
Sibit Lam was lucky, he got a place. In the laboratory, he stands in overalls next to Instructor Dondero at the workbench. Until recently, the 35-year-old was still doing odd jobs, earning his living as a construction worker, among other things. He hopes to get a foot in the door with the course: “I believe that I have better opportunities for advancement here and can significantly improve my living conditions.”
The billions the United States is suddenly pumping into semiconductor manufacturing has Sibit Lam dreaming. Washington is alarmed, the first groundbreaking has been done.
If the US doesn’t make up ground now, the project could turn out to be a costly nightmare for the US – financially, economically and politically.
You can see this and other reports in Weltspiegel – on Sunday at 6.30 p.m. in the first.