Those are separate issues. It is convenient to blame automakers for the chip shortages because they are 100% at fault here for their stupidity with the automotive rated semiconductor segment.
Additionally, their lack of planning and foresight contributed to the larger semiconductor industry going into a panic, causing a purchasing frenzy that dried up all the channels.
People in the larger industry saw what happened with the automotive semiconductor segment and went, well... maybe I should just keep 1 year of all my critical ICs on hand just to be safe.
I agree with you that we need more fabs, but they need to be thought of as (from a US centric viewpoint) national security assets. The reality is that if we want significant infrastructure, we need to do major investment from the US Government to ensure they are built here in the US. There are either production minimum guarantees, subsidies on the construction or operational costs to basically cover the costs of having excess capacity.
Additionally, their lack of planning and foresight contributed to the larger semiconductor industry going into a panic, causing a purchasing frenzy that dried up all the channels.
People in the larger industry saw what happened with the automotive semiconductor segment and went, well... maybe I should just keep 1 year of all my critical ICs on hand just to be safe.
I agree with you that we need more fabs, but they need to be thought of as (from a US centric viewpoint) national security assets. The reality is that if we want significant infrastructure, we need to do major investment from the US Government to ensure they are built here in the US. There are either production minimum guarantees, subsidies on the construction or operational costs to basically cover the costs of having excess capacity.