Webinar Recap: Semiconductors

The Global Chip Shortage, Future Trends, and Investment Opportunities

General Partner David Siminoff and I hosted a webinar with an esteemed panel of manufacturing and supply chain experts last week to understand what caused the global chip shortage and what companies, governments, and manufacturers could do to be future-proof. We tried to answer what it takes to start a foundry business, how companies can create a more resilient supply chain, and where countries should focus in the future to regain competitiveness. Here are a few takeaways from our conversation:

Semiconductor chip

Takeaways

• For those not familiar with the topic, semiconductor chips are the brains behind every device we operate and communicate with. A semiconductor chip is a thin piece of silicon made from a round semiconductor wafer, typically 12 inches in diameter. The wafers go up through 800 processing steps, and it can take two to four months to make the transistors and wiring them up. After that process, the wafer is sliced into several hundred or more individual rectangles. These individual rectangles are referred to as…