Why Poland Should Strive To Become The SemiCon Manufacturer of the West
Semiconductors have been at the forefront of the newscycle since the start of 2021. The supply chain had been disrupted to the point where automakers had to halt production. The CCP has been engaging in quite a bit of sabre rattling with Taiwan, who is the world’s only manufacturer of chips. And Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is taking a tour across Europe, to see what city will land his juicy $95 Billion Mega Fab.
Semiconductors today are far more valuable than oil. They are present in every facet of our lives today. They’re the lifeblood of the digital economy. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to write this article, and you wouldn’t be able to read it on the device you’re holding in your hands. Life as we know it would grind to a halt. We’d be catapulted back to 1950 overnight.
Geopolitical Reasons
There are some serious geopolitical considerations when it comes to semiconductors. The unfortunate reality that almost all the world’s chips are manufactured on a single island leaves everyone vulnerable. But this also means that the US has an even greater interest to defend Taiwan.
Given that Poland is just a few blocks down the street from it’s Russian neighbors, we’ve always had an uneasiness to Russia’s escapades in the Ukraine. Although this pales in comparison to the situation between the CCP and Taiwan, I still wouldn’t call it ideal. If Poland were a strategic supplier of semiconductors to the rest of the world, the rest of the world would have a greater incentive to defend her. Becoming the world’s second largest supplier of today’s most valuable resource, puts Poland in a very strong position on the global stage.
High Concentration of Electrical Engineers
In my previous article, Why I Left California for Poland, I outlined the high concentration of STEM graduates in the country. Intel has long capitalized on this trend given its presence in the three-city region of Gdansk. Gdansk has a high concentration of electrical engineers, working in the field of semiconductors. Just this year, Robert Bogdanowicz and Michał Sobaszek have published their work on synthetic semiconductor diamonds, carrying on the semiconductor culture at the University.
As a Venture Capitalist I’ve come across many hardware companies in the region. In Warsaw, Satellite company Creotech SA manufactures hardware modules for its nanosatellites and draws most of its talent from the Warsaw University of Technology. Also coming out of WUT is ChipCraft, a fabless System on a Chip maker, designing biomedical SoCs.
It seems as though Poland’s Prime Minister is ahead of the curve, and is already courting Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel. Beyond the obvious economic implications, Polish leaders must also consider the massive geopolitical currency they gain, by subsidizing such a project. That’s why all sides of the aisle must come together and ensure that Multinationals such as Intel, are provided with all the resources they need, in order to establish brand new fabs here in the country.
In addition to Intel, we should also be courting the likes of Nvidia (who recently purchased ARM — the chip inside every mobile device), Apple and QualComm. Let’s use a significant portion of Polski Ład (Polish COVID-19 recovery fund) to fund these projects and assure to our partners in the semiconductor industry that costs are the least of their concerns. This incredible investment would pay itself hundreds of times over into the future, by providing high-tech manufacturing jobs to the population and cementing itself as the Taiwan of the Western Hemisphere.
