Read on for sixteen things to know about the AI build-out. They’re not all sweet, though at the end of the email you can listen to a catchy new protest song about data centers.
1. Check out our new activist toolkit
Trying to respond to the new chip facility (or maybe data center) in your community? Advocating for good jobs, safe drinking water, reasonable utility rates, or all of the above? If you need suggestions of where to start or resources for advocacy, we’ve got you covered. Check out CHIPS Communities United’s new toolkit and watch the launch video.
2. Micron workers in Taiwan are standing up for their rights!
The semiconductor industry is cashing in on the AI boom, particularly the makers of memory chips. The three big ones – SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron – are making money hand over fist. Both hynix and Samsung have agreed to share profits with their employees, but only after fierce labor disputes led by workers demanding fair compensation. Now workers at Micron in Taiwan are making similar demands. Here’s the background (from our friends at Taiwan Labor Watch) and here’s the latest.
3. AI demand is driving semiconductor production
The AI build-out is translating into enormous demand for advanced chips. For example, TSMC’s revenue in August was up 53.3% year-over-year, bringing its revenue growth since January to 39.3%. Samsung is raising prices on its chips by 15% in response to growing demand.
Is it a bubble? Yes it’s a bubble. No, not a bubble.
4. More chip production is moving to the US
With rising demand, we’re seeing new semiconductor factories planned for the US. We already knew about Elon Musk’s planned Terafab in Grimes County, Texas. Now Korean chip-maker SK hynix (which is already building an advanced packaging plant in Indiana) is reportedly in exploratory talks with Intel about producing memory chips in the United States, potentially using part of Intel’s delayed Ohio facility. Separately, SK Hynix’s U.S. subsidiary Solidigm is considering a new U.S. NAND factory, potentially in upstate New York.
5. We are drowning in PFAS
As readers of this newsletter know, chip factories use over a hundred different PFAS compounds (the toxic “forever chemicals”) in their production processes. Data centers also use PFAS chemicals. The AI boom is driving a massive increase in production of these hazardous chemicals, at the moment when science makes crystal clear that we should be phasing them out altogether. One analyst calls it a tidal wave of PFAS.
As Erin Brockovich reports, (yes, that Erin Brockovich) “the same company that just settled for $450 million in PFAS contamination damages is planning to make more PFAS to feed the AI data center boom.” The company is named Chemours, a spin-off of DuPont, and thanks to AI, they’re expanding their polluting PFAS factory in West Virginia.
Data centers are contributing to PFAS pollution. “10% of all PFAS used in Europe can be traced to the computing industry.” One of the little known challenges: PFAS air pollution from chip fabrication and data centers.
6. The Trump administration is making it harder to protect public health
Scientists know that PFAS is toxic, but the law has not caught up. The hazardous compounds can legally be released into our sewage system or directly to rivers, lakes, and streams. Last month the EPA made it harder for local communities to stop industrial polluters, by rescinding federal guidance that encouraged local and state agencies to protect our waters from these persistent, highly toxic chemicals. Here’s how CCU and our allies responded. These moves are part of a broader attack on the Clean Water Act. To learn more about the issue and help stop PFAS contamination in your local community, check out CCU’s campaign Forever Ends Here.
In related moves, the Trump administration is prioritizing the review of new chemicals for data centers, to make it faster and easier for companies to market and use new toxic chemicals. The administration also stalled a national survey of wastewater plants, which would have helped the government understand which industries are releasing PFAS into public waters.
7. More information on the local impact of data centers
We could fill this newsletter with articles about the impact of data centers on local communities, but two recent articles stand out. An analysis of Oregon’s existing data centers found that the facilities employ just 0.2% of the state’s workforce, although in some places – like rural Morrow County – the hyperscale data centers account for 10% of the local workforce. Data centers in Oregon also use a quarter of the state’s energy. How about the impact on local budgets? It looks like data centers paid $60.2 million in property taxes last year while receiving tax exemptions worth somewhere between $230 million and $450 million.
Within the next few years, US data centers will use more natural gas than most countries, finds a new report. “This volume exceeds the current gas consumption of all nations except China, Russia, Iran and the United States.”
8. Wait, here’s a great idea! (Sarcasm alert)
So we know that data centers use a lot of water, right? And they also have a tendency to pollute the water that they use. Well, one company proposes to solve that problem through cloud seeding, spraying saline solution into clouds in order to make it rain near the data centers. “A lack of sustainability in a business model cannot be solved by artificially changing weather patterns,” said Tyson Slocum, friend of CCU and a director at Public Citizen. “It’s an absurdly irresponsible concept that should be killed before it goes any further.”
9. Chipmakers face a labor shortage
We’ve heard this one before: A new landscape analysis finds that the U.S. faces a shortage of up to 157,000 semiconductor workers by 2030. Fortunately, capitalism has an answer to this problem: pay workers more money! (See item number 2 above.)
10. Wait, how many jobs did we get for our investment?
The CHIPS and Science Act (the largest industrial policy in US history) was supposed to revitalize domestic semiconductor production and create good jobs for American workers. A new study finds that nationally, “the legislation created approximately 15,000 jobs in the core semiconductor sector. Their estimate of the total employment gain, including jobs in related sectors such as semiconductor equipment and materials manufacturing, upstream inputs, and construction, is between 30,000 and 46,000 jobs.” CCU supports the use of government resources to create good jobs in communities that need them, but these numbers are far lower than the number of jobs promised by companies and the government. (CCU recently estimated the cost to taxpayers of each job promised by CHIPS Act recipients: the new jobs cost you and me more than a million dollars each. The price tag per job would be much higher using the numbers from this study.)
In a related story, research in South Korea indicates that the employment-inducing effect of the semiconductor industry in that country is weakening year over year, as automation and the use of part-time work increase. The semiconductor industry is also comparatively much worse at creating jobs than other manufacturing sectors.
11. Chip-making is booming in Arizona
That’s not really news, is it?
Making semiconductors is thirsty work, especially for a company like TSMC, which is now officially investing $265 billion and building twelve chip factories in the middle of a desert, part of the largest foreign direct investment in US history. The local community wonders if there will be sufficient water for the chip giant.
In nearby Peoria, Amkor, an advanced packaging plant that will package chips for TSMC, is tripling its planned size and investment. The company will now spend $12 billion on its factory, which will be over a million square feet.
12. In Idaho, Micron benefits from massive tax breaks
This blog post breaks it down, and outlines some of the challenges Micron might bring to Boise:
- Pressure on the housing market, leading to higher rents and home prices
- Massive electricity use, which could raise utility rates
- Foreign workers hired with H-1B visas, which means Idahoans lose out on jobs while foreign workers are “tethered to Micron with little or no bargaining power,” since their employer will own their visas
Now a state Senator wants to repeal the tax break.
13. Ohio residents are testing their air quality
CCU’s local partners in Licking County want to understand if data centers or Intel’s future chip fab in New Albany will impact their air quality. You can learn about their project and see the data here.
14. In New York, environmental protection vs. national security
In New York state, where Micron is investing $100 billion to create a huge new chip factory, CCU’s partners Jobs to Move America and Neighbors for a Better Micron are suing the county for failing to protect the local community from Micron’s toxic exposures. “Lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice argued that even if the activists’ concerns were correct — that a key state environmental review was rushed and insufficient — they should be trumped by national security interests.”
15. A song about data centers
A protest song for our moment! From the irreplaceable Elle Cordova: “There’s no time for laws when you’re building a god.”
16. Learn more about PFAS
Is all this talk of forever chemicals leaving you confused? You’re not alone! This Thursday, CCU partner California Clean Water Action will be hosting a webinar on PFAS as part of their Bite-Sized Environmental Health series. You can learn what PFAS are, why they’re dangerous, and how to limit your exposure. Thursday September 24 at 12:30 PT (3:30 ET). Register here!
That’s all for now. See you next time!
