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Comment by osnium123 | Hacker News Reader

Because Intel fired Gelsinger, I suspect that in 18 months, there will be no US based foundry doing advanced logic technology development. Maybe that’s better for the industry because all the money will be concentrated on one or two competently run foundries (TSMC and Samsung) but it’s unfortunate for Intel fab employees who have both ultra specialized skills and will be stigmatized for coming from a failed semiconductor manufacturer.

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Could you explain stigma? I don't understand why skilled workers would be looked down upon for business decisions out of their hands, being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Aren't there smaller fabs that would appreciate their skills?

I think the concern would be that Intel fab employees would bring bad habits with them which would ruin the effectiveness of smaller fabs.

In addition smaller fabs tend to have broader/less specialized roles. For example an integration engineer at an analog fab would have much broader scope than their counterparts at Intel and thus the Intel engineers would/could struggle to adapt.

> Maybe that’s better for the industry because all the money will be concentrated on one or two competently run foundries

How would this be better for the industry?

You are paying for two TD teams rather than three TD teams so the costs are amortized better. It also means that employees are more likely to stick to one employer which leads to more preservation of knowledge, etc.

Samsung?

Samsung is a bonafide foundry. Until Intel ships sometime, TSMC and Samsung are the only two competent foundries out there.

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