🎂 Good morning! Another lap around the sun for me!

Intel’s $20B bet

On Friday, Intel announced (with President Biden and Ohio governor Mike DeWine in attendance) that it would unload $20B (and up to $100B) to build the “largest silicon manufacturing location on the planet” in Ohio in the US, on a 1,000-acre location with two “leading-edge fabs,” with space for up to eight in total, becoming operational by 2025.

• Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said the company expects the new “Silicon Heartland” site to become “the largest silicon manufacturing location on the planet.”
• It’ll be Intel’s first new US manufacturing site location in 40 years, and the first outside the West Coast.
• That adds risks of midwest snow and ridiculously costly power outages, but building a new site will, in theory, see lots of risk mitigation, and Ohio suffers less from the water shortfalls of Arizona.
• But Intel is prying open the wallets of governments, too, hinting at spending more if more tax breaks come their way.
• For those craving technical details, it’s a little slim. Intel didn’t exactly say what process node it’ll be cranking out wafers with by 2024, just putting out that it will be using the “industry’s most advanced transistor technologies.”
• When aligned with Intel’s current roadmap, you get the “18A” process, four generations newer than Intel’s current node.
• Gelsinger also hinted at a “2nm and below” process.
• I saw one suggestion that this timeline aligns with ASML’s high-NA EUV machines. ASML, of course, makes the machines that make chips.
• I also saw commentators worried this was a Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) 2.0 situation, but it looks wildly different to that oddity.

Meanwhile, Intel isn’t alone in spending money to make money. TSMC is forecasting a $100B spend over three years to keep up with demand.

More: Here’s how Ohio won a bid by Intel to build the world’s largest chip factory (The Columbus Dispatch).

Roundup:

• 📱 Leaked Galaxy S22 Ultra EU pricing suggests no discount this year: blame Covid, supply chains, inflation… (Android Authority).
• 📅 Google Pixel 6a could revert to a May launch window, which is just around the corner and much earlier than the Pixel 5a (Android Authority).
• 🎧 Google sued for allegedly forcing radio DJs to lie about how great the Pixel 4 was meant to be (Android Authority).
• 📈 India Q4 2021: realme hits number three for the first time (Android Authority).
• 🍎 Plenty of talk about Apple’s upcoming Spring event: a new iPhone SE, iPad Air, and more, with new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Pro coming later — but Bloomberg also reports Russian regulatory filings were unearthed for three new iPhone models and nine new iPads, so 2022 could be a big year (Bloomberg).
• 🤷‍♂️ Airline CEOs make U-turn, now say 5G isn’t a big problem for altimeters: FAA cleared 78% of planes in the past week, more to come (Ars Technica).
• 💰 Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon all announced more acquisitions in 2021 than any other year in the past decade, according to Dealogic (CNBC).
• 📵 US athletes told to use burner phones at Beijing Winter Olympics (The Verge).
• 📉 What happens if a space elevator breaks (hint: bad stuff) (Ars Technica).
• 🌟 Lucasfilm has reportedly realized it should only be making Star Wars stuff now (AV Club).
• 📦 German Bionic’s connected exoskeleton helps workers lift smarter (Engadget).
• 🐶 “Do generations of dogs understand relation to their descendants? Like, would a ‘grandpa’ dog know his relationship to a new puppy ‘grandson’?” (r/askreddit).

Monday Meme

Wordle memes continues to delight me:

Cheers – off to get some cake!

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor