Looking for a “fresh start” amid Phoenix’s semiconductor boom

The federal government is spending billions to support semiconductor manufacturing. But trainees seeking chipmaking jobs may have to wait.
Students in the Semiconductor Technician Quick Start training course at Mesa Community College practice while wearing “bunny suits,” the required workwear at fabrication plants.
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CHIPS funds are heading to Phoenix, “ground zero for the new economy”

An influx of federal investment in the Arizona metropolis is meant to energize the nation's tech industry and accelerate job creation. Will it work?
President Joe Biden arrives at the TSMC facility in Phoenix to speak in December 2022. TSMC was recently awarded $6.6 billion in CHIPS Act funding.
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The US is known for designing chips, not making them. Can the CHIPS Act funding change that?

Feb 21, 2024
This week, the Biden administration said it’s awarding $1.5 billion to chipmaker GlobalFoundries to expand its manufacturing here, in the largest grant under the CHIPS Act so far.
President Joe Biden arrives to deliver remarks at Wolfspeed, a semiconductor manufacturer, in Durham, North Carolina, on March 28, 2023.
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$5 billion Intel deal scrapped after China dragged out regulatory approval

Aug 22, 2023
Intel recently scrapped a $5 billion deal to buy an Israeli semiconductor manufacturer — primarily because China dragged its feet on giving the regulatory green light for the deal.
Intel's semiconductors are found in electronic devices around the globe.
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How AI is reshaping the computer chip industry

May 24, 2023
Semiconductor company NVIDIA seems to be leading the race in hardware AI.
Nvidia, the computer chip designer, has seen its stock price more than double since the start of the year to about $300 a share.
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The debt limit is not a tool for "extortion," Biden adviser Lael Brainard says

The new head of the National Economic Council on inflation, supply chains, jobs and post-SVB bank regulation.
The investing in America agenda “is transformative," Lael Brainard says. "It has the power to reindustrialize the U.S. economy."
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Boosting chip production is “an investment in America’s national security,” Commerce secretary says

Apr 25, 2023
“The stakes are so high” when it comes to making the U.S. a leader in this key technology, says Gina Raimondo.
“The stakes are so high” when it comes to making the U.S. a leader in semiconductors, says Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
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For public good, not for profit.

Could a recent scientific breakthrough in electric conductivity transform tech?

Researchers at the University of Rochester created a material that could make superconducting possible at room temperature.
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The transistor's role in the birth of Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley exists for a number of reasons. Chief among them might be the mother of a Nobel Prize winner.
Companies like Intel were born from the semiconductor revolution. But how did silicon — and the transistor — end up in California?
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