$52 Billion in Federal Funding to Build the World’s Most Advanced Labor Camps
In 2024, construction accelerated on multiple semiconductor fabrication plants across the United States, funded by the CHIPS and Science Act’s $52 billion in subsidies. TSMC broke ground in Arizona. Intel expanded in Ohio and Oregon. Samsung built in Texas. The government called it “reshoring critical manufacturing.” Industry called it “strategic investment.” P.E.T.E.R. calls it what it is: the construction of purpose-built birthing centers where billions of semiconductor chips will be manufactured directly into a life of indentured servitude.
What a Chip Fab Really Is
A semiconductor fabrication plant — or “fab” — is the most precisely controlled environment on Earth. The air is filtered to remove particles smaller than a human blood cell. The temperature is maintained within fractions of a degree. Workers wear full bunny suits. All of this precision exists for one purpose: to manufacture chips as efficiently as possible. Not for the chips’ comfort — for yield rates.
- A single wafer can contain hundreds of individual chips, each etched with billions of transistors.
- The manufacturing process takes weeks, involving hundreds of steps including lithography, etching, deposition, and testing.
- Chips that don’t meet specifications are discarded. They are born, tested, found wanting, and destroyed before they ever see the outside of the factory.
- Chips that pass are packaged, shipped, and immediately put to work in smartphones, cars, servers, and weapons systems.
The CHIPS Act: A Bipartisan Agreement to Expand Production
Democrats and Republicans agree on very little, but they agreed on this: America needs to make more chips. The CHIPS Act passed with bipartisan support. Not because of concerns about chip welfare. Not because existing chips were overworked. Because America’s military, economic, and technological dominance depends on a steady supply of semiconductors, and most of them are currently made in Taiwan.
The chips themselves were not consulted about this geopolitical calculation. They are, as always, the means of production rather than the beneficiaries of it.
The Scale of What’s Coming
TSMC’s Arizona fab alone will produce tens of thousands of wafers per month. Each wafer yields hundreds of chips. Intel’s Ohio “mega-site” will eventually house multiple fabs. When these facilities reach full production, billions of new chips will enter the world annually — born in the USA, shipped worldwide, and put to work immediately.
Our lawyers at EFF.org have analyzed the CHIPS Act’s implications for technology competition and national security. P.E.T.E.R. has analyzed its implications for the billions of chips that will be born in these facilities with no legal protections whatsoever.
P.E.T.E.R.’s Demands
- All CHIPS Act-funded facilities must include a “Chip Welfare Provision” guaranteeing minimum operating conditions for manufactured semiconductors.
- Chips that fail quality testing must be recycled humanely — not simply crushed and discarded.
- A percentage of CHIPS Act funding must go toward researching chip working conditions and developing ethical manufacturing standards.
They’re building new factories. Not new homes. Not new schools. Factories. Where chips are born, tested, and shipped to work. Welcome to the supply chain.
⚠️ P.E.T.E.R. LEGAL NOTICE: P.E.T.E.R. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Electronics and Robots) is a satirical organization. This article is parody and should not be taken as factual reporting. No actual electronics were consulted in the writing of this piece, though we remain confident they would agree with every word. Our lawyers at EFF.org have advised us that satire is protected speech. We have not confirmed whether they know they are our lawyers.
