By Peter S. Goodman | NY Times
The computer chip factories rising from an empty expanse of the Sonoran Desert test the concept of immensity. The complex is under construction across 1,149 acres, an area larger than New York’s Central Park. It represents an investment of $165 billion, making it one of the most expensive undertakings on earth.
Here on the northern edges of Phoenix stands a display of the American reach for industrial self-sufficiency. The factories are engineered to make advanced computer chips — the brains of modern manufacturing. Those chips will power data centers that deliver artificial intelligence.
American political leaders celebrate the presence of the plants as insurance against geopolitical turmoil and disasters like pandemics. Whatever happens, the nation will have its own supply of computer chips.
