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TAP TIMES -12- JANUARY 2022

The BIG Boom! (from 10)

“I think we have more concrete trucks
working for me today than any other hu-
man on the planet,” Gelsinger told the
broadcaster.

Fab-friendly states
The likely choice for Intel’s “Little City” fab
operation is probably going to be in one Intel is currently expanding its Leixlip, Ireland fab site, its only
of its existing fab-friendly states: Arizona, wafer fab in Europe, and now the only fab offshore with the ex-
New Mexico or Oregon. ception of Israel. (Intel)
delighted to welcome semiconductor fabs.
However, unless Oregon ponies up an
incredible package of perks, it may not be These high-tech, mostly clean operations
in the running either. Outside of Califor- were going to replace California’s reliance
nia, Oregon has become a very expensive on agriculture, an industry which for de-
place to live and work. cades used the majority of the state’s pre-
cious, available water.
A suitable surrounding infrastructure, such
as water and electricity, is obviously very While the new fabs in the 1960s did add
important in the semiconductor process. significantly to Northern California’s tax
next page
The ideal location
An ideal fab location today
needs low property taxes, af-
fordable and unlimited; low-
cost housing for workers; a
reliable public transportation
system; and a state govern-
ment offering huge move-in
perks. California today offers
none of these.

In the 1960s and 1970s,
most California cities were

Water and lots of it is critical to the chip
manufacturing process. This is the water
generation and distribution facility at Intel’s
Hillsboro site. (Intel)