[esmi]

> I don't see how that big investment for relative low volume production would make sense for consumer products.

If the consumer product is a toy then sure. If it’s a medical device then it could make sense. It’s all about margin.

> After GlobalFoundries quit the race, US defense contractors have only Intel as supplier for many components.

Maybe. If you want millions of chips a quarter then sure. But if you want 1000s a quarter then there are many options, depending on the node I guess. I’m not going to Google a complete list but one obvious example is Texas Instruments.

[andy_ppp]

You can seriously get small run chips made on 7nm in the US? I just don't believe it.

[esmi]

Was 7nm a requirement? I didn’t gather that from the thread.

Small run 22nm is certainly available. These are fabricated in the US, albeit at an Intel site. https://www.mosis.com/pages/intel_sponsored_fab

[andy_ppp]

I mean the article is about them building a 5nm fab in Arizona, so i assume they do need it if they want to build fast AI chips that compete with China should it invade Taiwan.

[esmi]

What’s a fast AI chip? :)

What process node Google uses for TPU, one possibility for an AI chip, is not in the public domain since v1 but it’s very unlikely this chip is on the bleeding edge. Cost/benefit is likely not there for this use case. But only Google knows for sure since they run the cloud and get to define “benefit”.

https://www.nextplatform.com/2018/05/10/tearing-apart-google...

[andy_ppp]

As I understand it there are reasons you want to not be behind in process technology as it makes your chips much faster. If your economy wants to keep pace I think this is a clever decision by the US government to entice TSMC to build a 5nm fab in the US.

[vonmoltke]

Where in the world can you get small runs of 7nm chips, and why would you want them?