Semiconductor Manufacturer in Nebraska?

[Renovator2559]

The state unicameral has passed the $5.3B state budget and out of the budget 20 million was set aside for metro community college to prepare workers in the event that Nebraska lands a computer chip manufacturer, as reported by Nebraska Examiner

"McDonnell has been working with a Woburn, Massachusetts, company, Nantero Inc., that is interested in situating a plant in Nebraska. That company’s director has ties to Nebraska but was not immediately available for comment Thursday evening."

Also, McDonnell passed LB 616, which would authorize the state to match any federal funds that semiconductor manufacturers locating in Nebraska obtain under the federal CHIPS for America Act.


Having a Semiconductor manufacturer would be a huge boom to our state economy with an estimate of 4,735 high-paying jobs as noted by The University of Nebraska at Omaha College of Business Administration.

[almighty_tuna]

Nice find within the budget and welcome to the forums!

[nebugeater]

That would be a great get even at 25% of the estimated employee base mentioned

[Louie]

Seems like quite an extremely long shot.

[jessep28]

Micron 2.0

[legato9]

How would they even get the workers? Nebraska has a huge shortage as it is

[Renovator2559]

How would they even get the workers? Nebraska has a huge shortage as it is

That's why they are setting aside funds for preparing the workforce in training for metro community College and UNO.

Also, i have never heard of Nantero Inc

[PWL73316]

Nantero is a startup who has a concept for a new type of RAM that they've been kicking around for 20 years trying to get it off the ground with a first application.

Their concept is good, they have serious investors, just one of those things that may or may not ever find the right circumstances to get fully started.

[Athomsfere]

Nantero is a startup who has a concept for a new type of RAM that they've been kicking around for 20 years trying to get it off the ground with a first application.

Their concept is good, they have serious investors, just one of those things that may or may not ever find the right circumstances to get fully started.

That doesn't sound good to me.

Who would be their fab for any current production? Why would they not use something like TMSC for at least the short term?

[Renovator2559]

Nantero is a startup who has a concept for a new type of RAM that they've been kicking around for 20 years trying to get it off the ground with a first application.

Their concept is good, they have serious investors, just one of those things that may or may not ever find the right circumstances to get fully started.

That doesn't sound good to me.

Who would be their fab for any current production? Why would they not use something like TMSC for at least the short term?

We need competitors, not just every manufacturer relying on on one single manufacturer such as TMSC, relying on one single manufacturer is what cause technology to become stale

[Athomsfere]

Nantero is a startup who has a concept for a new type of RAM that they've been kicking around for 20 years trying to get it off the ground with a first application.

Their concept is good, they have serious investors, just one of those things that may or may not ever find the right circumstances to get fully started.

That doesn't sound good to me.

Who would be their fab for any current production? Why would they not use something like TMSC for at least the short term?

We need competitors, not just every manufacturer relying on on one single manufacturer such as TMSC, relying on one single manufacturer is what cause technology to become stale

I agree. But fabs aren't cheap or easy. There's a reason Intel uses them. There is a reason AMD went to them.

A new to market company spending hundreds of millions on a fab that isn't nearly as advanced (no 3nm, 5nm etc.) would IMO be way too risky.

The smart move would to let TSMC do the fab work until the company had enough cash to build a modern fab, and sold enough chips to justify having the fab.

[Renovator2559]

Nantero is a startup who has a concept for a new type of RAM that they've been kicking around for 20 years trying to get it off the ground with a first application.

Their concept is good, they have serious investors, just one of those things that may or may not ever find the right circumstances to get fully started.

That doesn't sound good to me.

Who would be their fab for any current production? Why would they not use something like TMSC for at least the short term?

We need competitors, not just every manufacturer relying on on one single manufacturer such as TMSC, relying on one single manufacturer is what cause technology to become stale

I agree. But fabs aren't cheap or easy. There's a reason Intel uses them. There is a reason AMD went to them.

A new to market company spending hundreds of millions on a fab that isn't nearly as advanced (no 3nm, 5nm etc.) would IMO be way too risky.

The smart move would to let TSMC do the fab work until the company had enough cash to build a modern fab, and sold enough chips to justify having the fab.

Who says these chips would need to be cutting edge with the latest nm? Thee chips could be use for other applications and if I'm not mistaken can chip manufacturing technologies and equipment not be licensed?

[Athomsfere]

Nantero is a startup who has a concept for a new type of RAM that they've been kicking around for 20 years trying to get it off the ground with a first application.

Their concept is good, they have serious investors, just one of those things that may or may not ever find the right circumstances to get fully started.

That doesn't sound good to me.

Who would be their fab for any current production? Why would they not use something like TMSC for at least the short term?

We need competitors, not just every manufacturer relying on on one single manufacturer such as TMSC, relying on one single manufacturer is what cause technology to become stale

I agree. But fabs aren't cheap or easy. There's a reason Intel uses them. There is a reason AMD went to them.

A new to market company spending hundreds of millions on a fab that isn't nearly as advanced (no 3nm, 5nm etc.) would IMO be way too risky.

The smart move would to let TSMC do the fab work until the company had enough cash to build a modern fab, and sold enough chips to justify having the fab.

Who says these chips would need to be cutting edge with the latest nm? Thee chips could be use for other applications and if I'm not mistaken can chip manufacturing technologies and equipment not be licensed?

Their marketing says they want to be the fastest and most efficient RAM. That suggests they need a modern node to me.

Although memory isn't on the bleeding edge as far as gate size.

As for chip manufacturing licensing: Everyone "knows" how to make the chips. Look at Intel, they had been running their fab for decades (AMD too), and couldn't get 7nm to work for them. So they started having TSMC help them out.

Now Intel wants to build a new fab, and TSMC wants to build one in Arizona for $12 billion as I recall. It just doesn't make sense for a young company to compete directly against that.

Instead, it makes sense to pay for someone who can make exactly what you want, for the cheapest price.

At some point, it becomes more profitable to have your own fab, like Crucial (Boise), or Samsung for memory chips. Maybe in the millions or hundreds of millions shipped each year.

[Greg S]

Kansas has landed two massive plants. Pansonic at $4 billion, and more recently EMP Shield with one at $1.9 billion.

It will be great if Nebraska lands one. It will take significant incentives. Kansas offered hundreds of millions to land theirs.

[ita]

Kansas has landed two massive plants. Pansonic at $4 billion, and more recently EMP Shield with one at $1.9 billion.

It will be great if Nebraska lands one. It will take significant incentives. Kansas offered hundreds of millions to land theirs.

From a regional standpoint, landing a relatively nearby EV battery plant and chip plant, bodes well for similar future investments in our area. Car part manufacturers especially like to have a tight chain of supply. Maybe we could get some related manufacturing facilities in Omaha/Lincoln.

One of the issues is we have a governor and legislature that is leaning towards austerity, so I don't know if they are going to willing to shell out the kind of incentives someone like Kansas did to land these type of projects (almost $900 million for Panasonic, and $370 million for EMP). Especially the governor, he's cutting stuff like funding for workforce housing in the state budget and funding for some development projects because the state shouldn't capitalize or put money into private industries. Doesn't sound like they would be opening to doing what Kansas did, especially when those were taxpayer subsidized incentives.

[ita]

Sorry, nothing for Nebraska yet, but an interesting story about CHIPs funds going to Phoenix. It's huge public and private investments driving monster chip manufacturing projects. Phoenix area is growing fast and will only continue to accelerate with the projects mentioned in this reporting.

CHIPS funds are heading to Phoenix, “ground zero for the new economy”