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Global semiconductor sales just surpassed the $600 billion mark and it is expected to become a $1 trillion per year industry by the 2030’s. With six or more large fabs going up in the US alone, and with this continued growth around the world, we will also experience many challenges.
One of the top challenges we will face is labor: according to Korn Ferry, labor shortages in the semiconductor industry are currently costing companies over $2 trillion around the globe. And that outlook is not expected to get any better in the short term within the semiconductor industry. With the skilled labor shortages, we will continue to see competition between companies – as well as opportunities for employees to advance their careers for higher-paying jobs or better work-life balance. Today the industry is seeing incredible turnover and a large number of experienced workers leaving the workforce that will be looking to retire in the near future. Currently, the US semiconductor industry is not able to handle this large turnover with such little backfill. The impact of labor shortages will continue to worsen the semiconductor shortages we are already seeing.
Chipmakers and equipment manufacturers currently have two options to fill skilled positions. They can either look for candidates who have been trained and educated through a university and obtained an academic degree, or they can hire candidates who have been trained as tradespeople through many years of hands-on experience. Both are slow processes. With technology advancing at the speed that it does, universities cannot give students hands-on experience with the latest technology since the equipment can cost over $100 million for a single machine.
The second major challenge our industry is facing is related to the supply chain. Today, semiconductor equipment manufacturers have an 18-month waiting list. Some specialized transformers required to build a fab are on a backlog for 30 months. This week, Nanya Tech announced they will delay the build of their new $10.3 billion fab by 6 months due to labor shortages and supply chain issues. The other supply chain issue we may experience further down the line is wafers, will wafer manufacturers be able to keep up with the supply needed for all these new fabs running at full production? Supply chain issues are not a temporary problem, but a larger challenge the industry will need to tackle in the future due to all the infrastructure and resources required to keep a semiconductor manufacturer running at full production.
As we continue to navigate an era of rising global instability and war, additional resources required to keep the semiconductor industry operating smoothly may prove bottlenecks. For example, recently there has been much talk focused on Neon gas. . Currently, Neon mostly comes from war-torn Ukraine, There are a lot of unknowns about whether this supply chain will be sustainable in the future.
According to the CEO of Global Foundries, the chip industry output must double in the next 10 years. In order to support that portion of growth in the US, there are several possible solutions to these issues that challenge the industry. To begin, Congress needs to pass the new Chips Act bill so that we can fund companies like Intel who are going to invest $100 million over the next decade to establish semiconductor manufacturing education and research collaborations with universities, community colleges, and technical educators across the U.S.
To further help resolve labor shortages, the US government can open the doors on immigration policies so highly skilled and educated workers from other countries can apply for open positions and university scholarships that are not being filled.
To make this industry growth in the US successful, we must collaborate with private corporations so they can build a sustainable industry together. Corporations and governments partnering and funding universities will be necessary for the future of this industry.
While competitors typically take an average of one month (and some up to 6) to pay a seller for a tool, this refurbisher received payment 1 day after the contract was signed through Moov’s global marketplace.
A large US refurbisher had entered into a deal with an end user for a top of market tool. However, when the end user was acquired, the deal fell through leaving the refurbisher with a costly asset on their books. When the refurbisher finally turned to Moov, they had already been paying storage fees for this unused asset for 9 months. The refurbisher had tried utilizing numerous brokers to offload the tool to no avail, due in part to the specific requirements of their original buyer. The refurbisher needed this asset off of their books in the new year – so they turned to Moov’s global marketplace for used semiconductor manufacturing equipment in hopes of finding a buyer.
After months of searching for buyers, the refurbisher was able to quickly secure an international buyer through Moov’s global marketplace. The entire process from contract through arrival, uncrating, and installation took a mere 35 days. Whatsmore, the refurbisher received payment one day after contract signing thanks to Moov’s buyer verification and payment support.
Moov worked with this end user to rapidly recapitalize 11 underutilized assets in order to secure production line budget for a critical tool they needed.
A production line team at a US manufacturer needed an ICP downstream asher but only had partial funding to acquire this system. Knowing Moov’s marketplace offers the largest selection of pre-owned tools from reliable suppliers, they turned to Moov to explore their options.
After consulting with Moov’s team of experts with over $1bn in experience helping manufacturers recoup capital on idle and underutilized assets, this manufacturer identified several idle systems they could sell through Moov’s global marketplace. The manufacturer was able to rapidly sell 11 tools in order to gain the capital they needed to acquire a YES Ecoclean system.
Moov was able to work with this manufacturer to ensure that capital from the sales of their used assets went back to a specific fabrication center and production line budget — ensuring this production line team had the funding they needed to acquire their plasma resist strip/descum system.
The end-to-end process of procuring a replacement tool, deinstallation, crating, air freight, rigging and installation would typically take 6 months. Through Moov, the entire process only took 4 weeks, enabling this fabrication center to minimize revenue loss when a critical machine went down.
A high volume wafer fabrication center in the western US was already in the market for a new ion implanter. When a second tool went down, their situation shifted from “opportunistic” to “critical.” Their senior facilities manager reached out to Moov to learn how they could expedite procuring a VIISion 200 replacement through Moov’s global marketplace.
Moov’s experienced managed service team quickly identified a tool from an international supplier that matched this fabrication center’s exact requirements. Thanks to Moov’s ecosystem of aftermarket service providers, Moov was able to provide an end-to-end solution for not only procuring the tool but also deinstallation, crating, air freight, rigging and installation. This process would typically take up to 6 months, but Moov was able to provide a 4-week solution to help this fabrication center get back up and running.
Knowing this fabrication center needed to avoid any further delays, Moov proactively sourced the exact model of pump the fab needed, at a discount, from a refurbisher partner, to ensure the client was able to get their new implanter up and running smoothly.
Since the process of procuring and delivering this replacement system moved so fast, it took longer for payment to process than it did to ship and install the tool itself. Thanks to Moov’s flexible payment options, the team was able to accommodate expedited delivery while still ensuring the seller was paid in a timely fashion.
In 2022, the semiconductor industry faced challenges including slowing sales growth and tensions in the global supply chain. However, the industry also saw record levels of investment in research and development by U.S. companies and the passage of the CHIPS Act, which provides incentives for domestic chip manufacturing, bringing total business Private Investments for U.S. Semiconductor Production to over 200 billion dollars. The US CHIPS Act has already prompted new commitments to construct manufacturing facilities in the US, and it is expected to create jobs and drive economic investment. The Act provides $52 billion in funding for a range of technologies, including large-scale fabrication facilities and projects for current-generation chips, new and specialty technologies, and manufacturing equipment and material suppliers. It also includes a 25% advanced manufacturing investment tax credit. In addition to manufacturing incentives, the CHIPS Act also focuses on research and development, with $13 billion in funding to foster collaboration between government, industry, academia, and other stakeholders and to develop the pipeline of scientists and engineers necessary to fuel future innovation in the semiconductor industry. The Act establishes several programs to support R&D, including the National Semiconductor Technology Center, the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, Manufacturing USA Institutes, and the CHIPS Defense Fund. Other countries that have implemented their own chips acts include Europe, Taiwan, China, South Korea, and Japan, with hundreds of billions of dollars added to the global investment in semiconductor manufacturing and research. Despite these efforts, significant challenges remain for the semiconductor industry, including developing a skilled workforce, maintaining leadership in chip design, and maintaining access to global markets and supply chains. To overcome these challenges, it is essential for the industry to maintain a strong partnership with local governments and other key players, to ensure that the industry is able to meet the increasing demand for semiconductors.