Saudi Arabia reportedly wants to attract 50 chipmaking firms to the country by 2030 [Quartz]

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Saudi Arabia is looking to diversify its economy away from crude oil, and is turning to what some consider its modern day equivalent: semiconductors.

The kingdom announced its National Semiconductor Hub Wednesday to develop semiconductor companies that can design new chips, saying that it wants to attract 50 firms to Saudi Arabia by 2030. The hub will focus on simple chips for now — not advanced chips essential to generative artificial intelligence and military technology, Bloomberg reported. Chip manufacturing will reportedly be done abroad in the medium-term.

“We’re not trying to replace Nvidia or challenge Intel,” Naveed Sherwani, head of the National Semiconductor Hub, told Bloomberg. “We want to do humble beginnings. Once we have built a base, then we can talk.”

(rest of article omitted)

Saudi Arabia is getting into semiconductors, but it's not trying to beat Nvidia — yet

Saudi Arabia reportedly wants to attract 50 chipmaking firms to the country by 2030

qz.com

 

[Daniel Nenni]

I'm wondering how long semiconductor onshoring will continue to be the "big thing" for foreign investment?

 

[Blue Devil]

I'm wondering how long semiconductor onshoring will continue to be the "big thing" for foreign investment?

Yes, and when will the world have too much fab capacity?

 

[hist78]

Saudi Arabia is looking to diversify its economy away from crude oil, and is turning to what some consider its modern day equivalent: semiconductors.

The kingdom announced its National Semiconductor Hub Wednesday to develop semiconductor companies that can design new chips, saying that it wants to attract 50 firms to Saudi Arabia by 2030. The hub will focus on simple chips for now — not advanced chips essential to generative artificial intelligence and military technology, Bloomberg reported. Chip manufacturing will reportedly be done abroad in the medium-term.

“We’re not trying to replace Nvidia or challenge Intel,” Naveed Sherwani, head of the National Semiconductor Hub, told Bloomberg. “We want to do humble beginnings. Once we have built a base, then we can talk.”

(rest of article omitted)

Saudi Arabia is getting into semiconductors, but it's not trying to beat Nvidia — yet

Saudi Arabia reportedly wants to attract 50 chipmaking firms to the country by 2030

qz.com

"Saudi Arabia is looking to diversify its economy away from crude oil, and is turning to what some consider its modern day equivalent: semiconductors."

Is it at least 20 years late?

 

[milesgehm]

“We want to make this place feel like Silicon Valley,” Sherwani told Bloomberg. “We’ve freed space. We provide them all kind of incentives for salary, for relocation. In total there are 10 incentives we will provide to anybody that wants to start a company here.”

Untethered from reality

 

[Mooredaddy]

Untethered from reality

Like Silicon valley except we'll publicly execute you if you are lgbt or experiment with drugs lol

 

[BruceA]

they going to import the talent too? I guess they can throw a lot of money at it for a decade and then discover as others did with GF takes a lot more than money

 

[Barnsley]

Saudi Arabia is looking to diversify its economy away from crude oil, and is turning to what some consider its modern day equivalent: semiconductors.

The kingdom announced its National Semiconductor Hub Wednesday to develop semiconductor companies that can design new chips, saying that it wants to attract 50 firms to Saudi Arabia by 2030. The hub will focus on simple chips for now — not advanced chips essential to generative artificial intelligence and military technology, Bloomberg reported. Chip manufacturing will reportedly be done abroad in the medium-term.

“We’re not trying to replace Nvidia or challenge Intel,” Naveed Sherwani, head of the National Semiconductor Hub, told Bloomberg. “We want to do humble beginnings. Once we have built a base, then we can talk.”

(rest of article omitted)

Saudi Arabia is getting into semiconductors, but it's not trying to beat Nvidia — yet

Saudi Arabia reportedly wants to attract 50 chipmaking firms to the country by 2030

qz.com

What they going to do with what they manufacture should they actually get to that point?

Still could be a good place to sell off some older tools you were gonna scrap!

Keeps people employed for a while also

 

[Daniel Nenni]

"Saudi Arabia is looking to diversify its economy away from crude oil, and is turning to what some consider its modern day equivalent: semiconductors."
Is it at least 20 years late?

They tried this with Globalfoundries. A fab was even planned in Abu Dabi, since they have plenty of sand to make silicon .

 

[peteryzhang]

The Kingdom got plenty of sand, capital and energy, for a silicon economy.

 

[horace]

Why would anyone want to work in Saudi Arabia in tech? Working in tech in US has much higher pay.

 

[Paul2]

They tried this with Globalfoundries. A fab was even planned in Abu Dabi, since they have plenty of sand to make silicon .

I knew people who were close to financials on that decision. Short summary: financials didn't work even for Mubadala.

 

[Barnsley]

Why would anyone want to work in Saudi Arabia in tech? Working in tech in US has much higher pay.

Have you seen how much they paying the soccer players to go there.

I am pretty sure they can make it worth someones while if need be

 

[tooLongInEDA]

Have you seen how much they paying the soccer players to go there.

I am pretty sure they can make it worth someones while if need be

Have you seen the sort of soccer players they're getting ? Same as with Japan and the US, it's end of career stars who are looking for a big, final payday and don't really care about winning major trophies any more. Money will buy you the best mercenaries (I wonder when Jose Mourinho might go to Saudi ?), but not the best current players or teams. Perhaps that may change over time (still talking about the soccer stuff - it's football for us), but see no sign of that yet.

But this is all nothing new. I recall a lot of noise about Dubai Silicon Oasis in the late 1990s.

I don't think the presence of capital alone has ever been enough to create and anchor an industry cluster in a particular location. You've also got to have some alignment with the local culture. Not convinced that the precision, painstaking attention to detail and sheer hard work and persistence needed are in the sweet spot for Saudi Arabia. Is there any local workforce at all up for the challenge here ? But I've never been there, so might be wrong.

Don't get me wrong here - I've got nothing against Saudi Arabia recycling their excess savings back into the West by paying over the odds for what are probably never more than vanity projects.