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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (47238)	5/24/2001 7:12:33 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

The no-limit poker game does not yet appear to be over. Tower Semiconductor is building a billion-dollar fab to support $100 million in sales. They're receiving large incentives from their government because semiconductor technology is "strategic." Dongbu is opening a new foundry in Korea and Silterra is opening one in Malaysia, even as existing foundries admit they are running at 30% of capacity. (Anyone know if utilization that low even covers fixed costs?) The PRC has also declared that semiconductor technology is strategic, and (along with Intel's $7.5 billion) is currently one of the few bright spots in the gloomy equipment picture. Meanwhile, look at how much has been spent on capital equipment in the last five years, and look at the net increase in the IC global market in the last five years. I haven't checked his numbers, but Bill McClean (IC Insights) claims that the chipmakers have spent $250 billion fighting over a $60 billion increase in chip sales. Not good. No-limit poker doesn't work if everyone plays. Katherine