Walton and ACI set to enter semiconductor manufacturing business

[Indos]

Marvell Semiconductor in USA was founded by this gentleman from Indonesia

Sehat Sutardja - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Thanks for the info, what I know we have at least one in Batam, more into assembling but yes the workers have sopisticated costume as like what we imagine for people working in this sector, one of the main stakeholder is Megawati Soekarnoputri, the Chairman of PDI P Party, biggest political party in Indonesia (20 % seats in parliament )

Previously, Soeharto son, Tommy Soeharto, also has one in Batam, but later sold to Singapore when we have Asia Financial Crisis in late 1990s

 

[Indos]

Marvell Semiconductor in USA was founded by this gentleman from Indonesia

Sehat Sutardja - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Here for chip design company in Indonesia

-----------------------------------

PT. Xirka Silicon Technology XST is the only and first chipset and electronics design house company in Indonesia. XST is a fabless semiconductor company that creates innovative integrated Circuit (IC) and to provide mass electronic product for a dynamic lifestyle, our mission is to combine high technology expertise, high quality of human resources, and high creativity for excellent value-added products.

From 2005 to 2008, the company started a design house as an outsourcing business venture, serving multinational electronics company in Fukuoka, Japan. XST was established in May, 2008 as a fabless company focusing in WiMax Baseband chipset. In 2012, XST began developing integrated circuit for smart card technology including NFC memory card chip, contact and contacless CPU card chip.

The founder and owner of the company is Professor Trio Adiono Phd, Bandung Institute of Technology researcher.

 

[leonblack08]

TSMC capital budget is $44 billion. I am not sure you can even comprehend the magnitude of the problem here

You are comparing Bangladesh, who haven't yet gotten a foothold in the industry with TSMC, who are the global market leaders. This one company alone has 52 percent of global market share. Of course they will have multi billion dollar capital budget and thousands of PhDs working for them. Why would these Bangladeshi conglomerates need to spend 44 billion annually when they are just getting started in the industry?

None of us here are with the delusion that we will become a major player in this industry. We need a start and eventually the infrastructure and the surrounding logistics can be built around over time with proper support from govt.

You keep on mentioning about capital intensiveness of the semi conductor industry. Here's a food for thought - in the 1980s, when Bangladesh just got started in garment manufacturing, no one could have imagined billions of dollars will be put into the industry. The country still was recovering from the war and suffering from frequent flooding and not to mention was dependent on foreign handouts. It took decades to build the robust supply chain and infrastructure to become a global leader.

In the 80s, garment manufacturing was a huge technological leap for a country who until that time was completely an agro based economy. We didn't have the skilled workforce to operate the industrial machines. The literacy rate was poor and most workers never lived in a city, let alone work with sophisticated industrial machine. It took decades to build that. This will be a similar technological leap.

Bangladeshi companies now have the ability to invest billions and there is a large workforce available with tertiary education and technological knowhow. Yet, it will be a steep learning curve in this industry. But given the context, I see no difference between our position then vs now.

 

[jamahir]

start a company and do it for yourself

 

[satyamev]

You are comparing Bangladesh, who haven't yet gotten a foothold in the industry with TSMC, who are the global market leaders. This one company alone has 52 percent of global market share. Of course they will have multi billion dollar capital budget and thousands of PhDs working for them. Why would these Bangladeshi conglomerates need to spend 44 billion annually when they are just getting started in the industry?

None of us here are with the delusion that we will become a major player in this industry. We need a start and eventually the infrastructure and the surrounding logistics can be built around over time with proper support from govt.

You keep on mentioning about capital intensiveness of the semi conductor industry. Here's a food for thought - in the 1980s, when Bangladesh just got started in garment manufacturing, no one could have imagined billions of dollars will be put into the industry. The country still was recovering from the war and suffering from frequent flooding and not to mention was dependent on foreign handouts. It took decades to build the robust supply chain and infrastructure to become a global leader.

In the 80s, garment manufacturing was a huge technological leap for a country who until that time was completely an agro based economy. We didn't have the skilled workforce to operate the industrial machines. The literacy rate was poor and most workers never lived in a city, let alone work with sophisticated industrial machine. It took decades to build that. This will be a similar technological leap.

Bangladeshi companies now have the ability to invest billions and there is a large workforce available with tertiary education and technological knowhow. Yet, it will be a steep learning curve in this industry. But given the context, I see no difference between our position then vs now.

we have a resident expert who we can send over, India will sacrifice for furthering friendship with Bangladesh.
He is also a expert in new softwares.
Tell us if you need him ?

 

[fallstuff]

Yes but you need to start somewhere.

10 years ago no-one thought that Walton could sell LCD tvs in Europe but it is happening now.

Let the burthurt continue here for Indians.

I agree to start at some point.
However, the lowest end of the cost spectrum is about 3 to 4 billion $. These manufacturing need highly skilled employees, I doubt BD has the talent pool to supply even if you can solve the funding through joint ventures or FDI.

I will be very happy to see if they can pull it off .

If they can pull this one off, this will certainly attract more FDI in tech industry.

 

[SuvarnaTeja]

What are you trying to say? Do you mind explaining why Taiwan and Korea are semiconductor giants after starting from zero.

No reason why BD or any other country cant make it. That is, if you dont believe only a few chosen countries can do this and that.

@nahtanbob is just jeolous of BD's progress

 

[UKBengali]

USA is not selling equipment to countries that are not allies. You can be farting around balance with China, Russia etc

You need people with highly advanced degrees to design and fabricate semiconductors. If you do not think so that is fine. That is
one thing Taiwan and South Korea have that Bangladesh does not have

You can start small and see where things go. It is the only option for Bangladesh. Unfortunately semiconductor industry is one of scale

TSMC capital budget is $44 billion. I am not sure you can even comprehend the magnitude of the problem here

Dude…….

The earliest realistic time when BD may just possibly need some equipment to get into any kind of serious commercial operation would be in the latter part of the 2030s.

By then China would have built up its own complete chain of the whole semiconductor manufacturing process.

BD will have options then in terms of sourcing equipment and software while it develops as much in house as possible.

We are looking at a true multipolar world if one day BD becomes a serious player in this sector and so let us stop taking about US/West all the time.

 

[Cheepek]

I do not want to discourage anyone. at this point semiconductor manufacturing is a little out of Bangladesh's league

Manufacturing is out of question, it'll mostly be designing, not the whole chip but only few parts of it.

 

[AmiEktaKharapChele]

Manufacturing is out of question, it'll mostly be designing, not the whole chip but only few parts of it.

Quite a few BD companies are already into designing different parts of the chips... Some work with TSMC

 

[nahtanbob]

You are comparing Bangladesh, who haven't yet gotten a foothold in the industry with TSMC, who are the global market leaders. This one company alone has 52 percent of global market share. Of course they will have multi billion dollar capital budget and thousands of PhDs working for them. Why would these Bangladeshi conglomerates need to spend 44 billion annually when they are just getting started in the industry?

None of us here are with the delusion that we will become a major player in this industry. We need a start and eventually the infrastructure and the surrounding logistics can be built around over time with proper support from govt.

You keep on mentioning about capital intensiveness of the semi conductor industry. Here's a food for thought - in the 1980s, when Bangladesh just got started in garment manufacturing, no one could have imagined billions of dollars will be put into the industry. The country still was recovering from the war and suffering from frequent flooding and not to mention was dependent on foreign handouts. It took decades to build the robust supply chain and infrastructure to become a global leader.

In the 80s, garment manufacturing was a huge technological leap for a country who until that time was completely an agro based economy. We didn't have the skilled workforce to operate the industrial machines. The literacy rate was poor and most workers never lived in a city, let alone work with sophisticated industrial machine. It took decades to build that. This will be a similar technological leap.

Bangladeshi companies now have the ability to invest billions and there is a large workforce available with tertiary education and technological knowhow. Yet, it will be a steep learning curve in this industry. But given the context, I see no difference between our position then vs now.

I did not start the comparison to Taiwan, South Korea.

garment manufacturing is a low margin business with no barriers to entry. for some parts of the business you do not need anything more than a 5th grade education. Even today Bangladesh has to import cotton for the garment industry. That will never change.

semiconductor manufacturing is up there in complexity with making jet engines.

Dude…….

The earliest realistic time when BD may just possibly need some equipment to get into any kind of serious commercial operation would be in the latter part of the 2030s.

By then China would have built up its own complete chain of the whole semiconductor manufacturing process.

BD will have options then in terms of sourcing equipment and software while it develops as much in house as possible.

We are looking at a true multipolar world if one day BD becomes a serious player in this sector and so let us stop taking about US/West all the time.

China is not going to supply you with the technology anymore the US/West will

 

[nahtanbob]

Quite a few BD companies are already into designing different parts of the chips... Some work with TSMC

designing is no different than writing software

 

[nahtanbob]

Bangladeshi companies now have the ability to invest billions and there is a large workforce available with tertiary education and technological knowhow. Yet, it will be a steep learning curve in this industry. But given the context, I see no difference between our position then vs now.

Could you name 10 Bangladeshi companies that have the ability to invest billions ?

 

[leonblack08]

Could you name 10 Bangladeshi companies that have the ability to invest billions ?

Why should we be concerned about whethet 10 Bangladeshi companies are able to invest billions or not? I don't get your logic here.

If you had read the article in the OP, it already talks about two BD conglomerates ACI and Walton expressing interest in this sector. Whether they will go at it alone or JV with a foreign producer it's up to them.

 

[leonblack08]

I did not start the comparison to Taiwan, South Korea.

garment manufacturing is a low margin business with no barriers to entry. for some parts of the business you do not need anything more than a 5th grade education. Even today Bangladesh has to import cotton for the garment industry. That will never change.

semiconductor manufacturing is up there in complexity with making jet engines.

Again, missed the point of my post entirely. In the 80s, Bangladesh had very few people who even had 5th grade education. So imagine the technological hurdle regarding workforce training we had to face when we had to make the transition from a agro economy to a manufacturing one. No single company could afford to invest hundreds of thousands much less million and billion.

After the garment manufacturing boomed in Bangladesh, there have been several universities dedicated to textiles. Who in turn produced textile engineers and who subsequently helped propel the RMG industry to grow and diversify.

When it comes to skilled labor for semiconductor, Bangladesh does have some workforce with electrical and CS engineering degree. It may not be enough initially, but overtime it will grow.

I will quote directly from what TSMC founder Morris Chang stated about Taiwan's journey to the top-

Taiwan, Chang said, has a large population that was integral to TSMC's manufacturing success. While the US and other countries saw professionals moving away from manufacturing, Taiwan was ripe with talent and made it an ideal location for a "pure play" chip foundry that only produced components for other companies, he proclaimed.

The US has a ready supply of design talent, "it's the best in the world," Chang said. "Taiwan has very little design talent, and TSMC has absolutely none." But to develop and grow a successful chip manufacturing industry, the US will need to address its own serious fabrication talent shortages, he opined.
US experts seem on the same page as Chang. One think tank said that it thinks there will be several thousand positions left unfilled in any new factories due to a lack of suitably skilled semiconductor manufacturing workers in the nation. Chang added that TSMC tried multiple arrangements of American and foreign employees to staff its Oregon plant, but without much reduction in costs.

US chip output growth a futile exercise, warns TSMC founder

Production talent isn't here, costs are high ... so how's that multi-billion-dollar Arizona plant coming, eh?

www.google.com

So as you have been putting it, Taiwan didn't have everything set up for them right from the get go. They utilized what they had- people. A lot of people. Do you think US doesn't have sufficient number of engineers? No. The reason it is extremely expensive to produce in US is because no university graduate engineer will work for low wages. But that is not the case in developing countries like Bangladesh. Engineering graduates are already working with lower wages in Bangladesh's growing electronics manufacturing sector.

As for the reason Bangladesh has to import cotton is because our climate is not suitable for cotton production. It is a natural limitation. Hence now companies are buying up land in Africa for harvesting cotton and complete backward integration. Again, you are not making sense with your arguments here.