One of the things we learned during the Pandemic’s early days before we became obsessed by lockdowns and mandates was that the United States had a great number of strategic industries in which our supply lines started in China, thereby making us vulnerable to the whims of an enemy.

Yes, I said an ENEMY.

Chief amongst these issues was CHIPS — meaning advanced logic semiconductors.

The issue was simple — in the event of an emergency, China could control the flow of chips to the United States and a chip shortage could have a devastating impact on the nation.

Right now, chips are the most precious commodity driving the auto industry. 

So what do we do, Big Red Car?

Ahh, dear reader, in this instance, we let capitalism, competition, the marketplace sort it out.

 1. Samsung Corporation is building a new $17,000,000,000 chip plant in Taylor, Texas around the corner from Austin — largest US investment by Samsung ever.

This plant will be 45,000,000 SF in size and be operational in two years — 2024.

 2. Micron is considering Central Texas for a $40,000,000,000 chip plant — work in progress.

 3. You already knew that Tesla was making its Cybertruck in Austin, right?

 4. Intel is building a new $20,000,000,000 chip plant in Arizona.

 5. TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is also building a fabrication plant in Phoenix, Arizona that will start delivering 5-nanometer chips by 2024 and will ultimately produce 20,000 chip wafers a month.

The US semiconductor market is essentially Samsung, Intel, Micron, and TSMC and every one of these big players is in the game with enormous capital outlays.

But there’s more

Not only did capitalism and the free market send out a siren call, but these chips may drive more US onshoring of tech products.

Apple uses solely TSMC chips for its Apple iPhone. Might they not return manufacturing to the US? Hell yes.

But, there’s even more

Hose us down, Big Red Car —

1. Meta — the artist formerly known as Facebook — is expanding like crazy from its original 2010 10-employee stake in downtown ATX.

More than 700 Metas work out of that original office.

Meta leases 10 floors of Third + Shoal an office building on Nueces Street. That is about 250,000 SF — room for more than 1,500 employees even without skinny jeans.

Meta leases all 17 floors of Domain 12 tower as well as part of Domain 8.

Needing a bit more space, the Meta leased an additional 32,000 SF at Parmer Innovation Center.

 2. Apple — already 7,000 employees strong on Parmer Lane is investing more than $1,000,000,000 for additional space at Robinson Ranch where they are going to site 15,000 workers on 133 acres. This is a mile from their Parmer Lane campus.

 3. Google — arriving in 2007 with 100 employees, Google put 800 additional employees in a new high rise in 2017.

Now, the word on the street is Google has leased 35 floors in Block 185 (room for more than 4,000 workers) as well as 7 stories in an Eastside building for 750 employees.

OK, turn off the fire hose valve, y’all. You get the picture, right?

Global chip manufacturing is coming to the United States, big time.

Austin is getting more than its fair share of tech company offices.

Bottom line it, Big Red Car

We have a long way to go, but the move out of China has begun. Market forces and capitalism and markets = common sense.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Let’s do this.