However it's misguided. Cost of labor is still 10x higher than a plant with the same productivity in a relatively poorer country. American manufacturing is mostly indirect social welfare now, it's not economically efficient.
Is cost of labor really one of the major costs of a semiconductor plant? Plants in South Korea and Taiwan are economical and they have relatively high labor costs, so I'm not sure I buy this.
This was my thought as well, chip production has to be so necessarily automated to maintain a clean state that it feels like the cost of engineers to maintain systems is always going to be high, but also a small cost of the overall system. I'd love some real numbers.
The only reason it’s not in China is because they don’t have ready access to the technology that allows for this. All the “fabulous” chip makers in Asia are all US allies.
It's not like semiconductor plants are using the cheapest possible labor they can get their hands on. I imagine there are very few people working in semiconductor plants that don't have post secondary education.