If you were alive during the 90s or 2000s, you surely remember that tune. It’s the anthem of Intel, the world’s most dominant chip maker, or at least, they were. Since then, Intel has had a pretty rough fall from glory. In fact, today, Intel barely ranks in the top 10 when it comes to the world’s largest chip makers. They come in behind Nvidia, TSMC, Broadcom, Samsung, ASML, AMD, Qualcomm, Applied Materials, and Texas Instruments.And when you contextualize this with Nvidia’s performance, things
    • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      6·
      7 months ago

      instead of in America

      For one, what do you think makes a company from X country?

      Technically where it is headquartered, but Israel has 3, just 3, fabrication plants for manufacturing, not development or research.

      All manufacturing of Intels high tech chips (20A which is 2nm, and the 5nm chips) will be manufactured in the US, while slightly less advanced, but still advanced chips like the 10nm, are 4/5 made in US, the middle of the road chips, are about half and half, but Intel 4 is made in Ireland, but anything above 22 nm is US made, and 22 nm manufacturing varies.

      If you base it on manufacturing, then no, it is not Israeli. It is still American.

      All developmental facilities are in the US, mostly in Oregon.

      If you base it on development, then no, it is not Israeli. It is still American.

      All research facilities are in the US, such as the RP1.

      If you base it on research, then no, it is not Israeli. It is still American.

      Intel is headquartered in California.

      Thus, it is still a US company.

      Those are just Intel owned locations, I’m not sure about the individual work forces, so I could not answer that.

      But about 43% of their workforce is in the US. The US workforce for Intel is 62k, divided by the total number of Intel employees, 131,900, equals about 0.43, so 43%. There are 12,000 Israeli employees, so, using that same math, about 9%. Their largest workforce is in the US.

      In conclusion, while Intel has a large presence in Israel, it is a US tech company, and using your own logic, it remains that way.

      Also I’m not defending Israel at all. I have not mentioned my views on Israel or the current conflict at all. I am not really defending Intel either, just offering evidence that they are an American company, not an Israeli company.

      I am not using calls of antisemitism to defend Israel, I’m saying that equating some with a potentially Jewish last name as not only Jewish but Israeli to boot is racist as hell and definitely 100% antisemitic.

      Fwiw, Israel paid Intel at least $3.2 billion dollars to build of fabs there. That isn’t Intel supporting Israel, that’s Intel being a corporation in a capitalist system and doing the thing that makes the most sense financially. Ethically grey? Yes, at best, but it is not “supporting Israel”. Look at the makeup of the current battlespace in Ukraine. It’s dominated by missiles, drones, wireless jammers, starlink terminals, etc. All that shit needs computer chips. Russia was scavenging circuit boards off of home appliances because of their limited access due to sanctions. WW2 era warfare required an army to maintain steady control over oil refined oil, which had never really been a humongous issue previously. Warfare in 2024 requires access to silicon fabrication. If you can’t maintain that supply line you can’t continue building drones, missiles, whatever. Israel is surrounded by countries that would blockade them in the event of total war in the region. Having fab facilities in country makes complete sense from their perspective. Once again, Intel getting paid to build a fab somewhere isn’t tacit approval of the actions of the government in that place, it’s Intel doing what any publicly traded company would do, maximize profit.

      Like I’m absolutely not shilling for Intel here, I do not own any discrete Intel products. I have shit with Thunderbolt, but there’s not much I can do about that. I’m not defending Israel in their current invasion of Gaza.

      All I’m saying is that Intel is an American company, and that it makes sense for Israel to want to have fab facilities in country due to their geopolitical situation. An American company doing business in the country of a US ally is not surprising. If you don’t like it, pressure your elected officials to embargo Israel and to put them on the ITAR list. At that point Intel will have to shut down its operations in Israel.