Building The U.S. Microelectronics Workforce; A Collective Plan for Sustainable Semiconductors

A nationwide talent engine for chips is taking shape—and it’s built to scale. Recorded live at SEMICON West in Phoenix, we sit down with SEMI Foundation leaders to unpack the National Network for Microelectronics Education, a hub-and-node model designed to align schools, employers, and workforce systems. Backed by CHIPS Act funding through the National Science Foundation, NNME will fund multi-state regional nodes that modernize curricula, streamline upskilling, and share proven playbooks across the country. We also unveil the refreshed Chip Path portal, which maps your skills and interests to real jobs in fabs, equipment, and materials, and we highlight SEMI-Quest, a hands-on STEM experience designed to spark early curiosity about microelectronics.

Then we turn to sustainability where momentum is accelerating. The Semiconductor Climate Consortium has grown past 100 members and is shifting from baselines to projects that deliver measurable impact. We explore how the Energy Collaborative pushes for policy that opens affordable renewable power, while SCC advances user-side strategies—better emissions accounting, renewable procurement models, and fab energy efficiency. A core challenge emerges: hyperscalers often target net zero by 2030, while many chipmakers point to 2050. We dig into how coordinated innovation, shared standards, and advocacy can close that 20-year gap.

AI’s energy appetite raises the stakes, so we tackle both sides of the equation: adding clean capacity where it matters most and designing for lower power at the chip and fab level. From global cooperation across APAC, EU, and the U.S. to practical ways individuals and companies can act now, the throughline is collaboration with urgency. Ready to find your role in the future of chips—whether building skills, hiring smarter, or decarbonizing faster? Subscribe, share this episode with your team, and leave a review to help more people find these insights.

SEMI
A global association, SEMI represents the entire electronics manufacturing and design supply chain.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Sponsor Message
• 0:34 Live From SEMICON West Phoenix
• 1:06 Meet The SEMI Foundation Leaders
• 2:35 What NNME Is And Why It Matters
• 3:42 Hub-And-Node Model Explained
• 4:30 Who The Network Serves
• 5:26 RFP For Regional Nodes
• 6:39 Funding Through CHIPS And NSF
• 8:12 Early Momentum And LOIs Nationwide
• 9:49 How Job Seekers Use Chip Path
• 11:10 Outreach And Role Of Nodes
• 12:46 Regions, Nodes, And Partnerships
• 14:06 Company Involvement And Resources
• 15:38 The Ask: Join And Participate
• 16:07 SEMI-Quest STEM Experience
• 17:21 Where To Learn More About NNME
• 18:12 Sustainability Tracks At SEMICON West
• 19:18 Meet SCC And Energy Leaders
• 20:21 Growth Of The Climate Consortium
• 22:02 From Baselines To Impact Projects
• 23:31 Corporate Commitment Despite Policy Swings
• 25:06 Aligning Net Zero Ambitions Across The Chain
• 26:30 Bridging The 20-Year Net Zero Gap
• 27:56 Energy Collaborative vs Climate Consortium
• 29:20 AI’s Energy Demand And Renewables Push
• 31:05 Designing For Efficiency And Lower Power

Transcript

Francoise von Trapp: 0:00

This episode of the 3D Insights Podcast is brought to you by SEMI, the leading microelectronics industry association with programs that help its members grow their business and address top challenges worldwide. With a global focus on advocacy, the microelectronics supply chain, sustainability, and workforce development, SEMI works with industry leaders to align goals, share best practices, and accelerate progress. Learn more at semi.org. Hi there. I'm Francoise von Trapp, and this is the 3D InCites Podcast. Hi everyone. This week we are recording live from SEMICON West, and this time it's taking place in Phoenix, Arizona, in October, which is a change. And among the programming this week is Semi Foundation's efforts in the workforce development for the semiconductor industry. And they've had some pretty exciting news this week about a program they've been working on for a while and they finally get to talk about it. And so I'm here and excited to welcome Shari Lisss and Michelle Williams to talk about the National Network for Microelectronics Education, the motivations behind it, and the current challenges you're facing, if we could talk about that.

Michelle Williams: 1:20

Happy to. All of the above.

Francoise von Trapp: 1:23

Okay. So before we dive in, you've both been on the podcast before. Can you just, for anybody who hasn't heard you, just introduce yourself and your role at SEMI Foundation?

Shari Liss: 1:33

Sure. Hello, my name is Shari Liss. I'm the Vice President for Global Workforce Development and Initiatives for SEMI. I oversee our global workforce programming across all eight of our regions. Semi-Foundation, Semi-University, Everything Workforce.

Francoise von Trapp: 1:48

Okay, so this isn't just a semi-foundation initiative.

Shari Liss: 1:52

This is actually a semi-foundation initiative. It is. Okay.

Francoise von Trapp: 1:55

Because I usually I usually try to be very careful about the difference between semi and semi-foundation because it's a different thing.

Shari Liss: 2:01

I sit I sit in semi. Okay. But this initiative is part of the semi-foundation. It was awarded to the semi-foundation, yes. Okay.

Michelle Williams: 2:09

I am Michelle Williams. I'm the executive director of the SEMI Foundation. And uh Yeah, this is this has been a big focus of ours for the last many months.

Francoise von Trapp: 2:21

Can we talk about what the name means? We're gonna call it NNME. Or these guys say NNME. NNME, that's an eye. And then it's a mouthful. What is the um The raison d'etre? Yes, what is the raison d'etre?

Michelle Williams: 2:38

Love that. The NNME, did I say it slowly enough? Yeah. Uh it is a national effort to attract and educate Americans in our industry. And through it, we are connecting educators, employers, workforce systems, and policymakers to design workforce development solutions in a national way. So in the model, which is a hub and spoke model, the SEMI Foundation is the coordinating hub of the NME. And uh Sherry will get to tell you our exciting news that she announced on the main stage uh yesterday. But very soon we're gonna have what's called regional nodes, and those nodes are gonna lift a lot of this work. So um modernizing curriculum, making sure it's aligned with industry, a lot of industry awareness work. And a big piece of our work is going to be gathering that information and all that great work from all the nodes and then disseminating it nationwide. So we are gonna be building new programs and initiatives, but we're also gonna be sharing what is the great work that's already happening out there.

Francoise von Trapp: 3:38

Is the target the education system K through 12? I see colleges, universities, workforce boards.

Shari Liss: 3:44

How is it all connected? The target is everybody doing workforce development in whatever way possible. The target is making sure that we can fill every role that's needed in this industry in some way or have a handle in making that happen. So we're looking at how do we attract students into this? How do we get kids excited in K-12? How do we align competencies across community colleges with what's needed in industry? How do we do the same with the university system? How do we upskill and reskill? So it's looking at everything that's needed in this industry and who are the partners that can make that happen. That's huge. It is huge.

Francoise von Trapp: 4:18

It is huge and exciting. There are people at SEMI Foundation making this work, right? But you must be working with organizations around the country.

Shari Liss: 4:26

Yeah. So the goal, as as Michelle mentioned, it's this hub and spoke model. So what I was able to announce on the main stage yesterday is that we're launching the request for proposals, the RFP, on Monday, October 13th. But we're launching the RFP to identify regional nodes around the country. So the regional nodes will consist of partners across industry, academia, workforce boards, nonprofits, all the agencies that can come together to build all of these programs. And so the hope is that those regional nodes will help develop what's needed in support of the industry.

Francoise von Trapp: 4:59

So would you say it's a collaboration between industry, academia, government, and yeah. Yes.

Shari Liss: 5:08

And yes. And and nonprofits and everybody that has a hand in this. And the stakeholders are all of those different pockets, and our and our members really are gonna be the beneficiaries in terms of finding the talent that they need in order to fill the ecosystems. How is this funded? Uh it is funded as part of the CHIPS Act. Okay. And it is funded for us through the National Science Foundation.

Francoise von Trapp: 5:32

Okay. And so is SEMI Foundation the distribution channel? Like, do you receive all the funds and then you send them out to whatever node is participating?

Michelle Williams: 5:43

Yeah, we have funding to support uh our work as the hub, which is somewhat distinct from the work of the nodes. And then uh we'll put all the nodes under contract. And yes, so we will receive the funds from the National Science Foundation and then disseminate it to the nodes.

Francoise von Trapp: 5:58

And you'll be getting the RFPs in and deciding from there who wins. Group of people that will be deciding.

Shari Liss: 6:05

It's not the semi-foundation alone.

Michelle Williams: 6:07

No.

Francoise von Trapp: 6:08

Okay. So you've been working on this for a few months. So what has the early momentum been?

Shari Liss: 6:16

It's been pretty amazing, to be honest. In August, we released a letter of interest to gather interest from around the country to get a sense of who was interested in leading regional nodes, who was interested in being a partner in regional nodes. We received almost 300 LOIs in response to the call, and I think we received LOIs from every state in the nation.

Francoise von Trapp: 6:34

How would someone who is looking to either reskill, upskill, let's say they were working at Intel and they got laid off, can they benefit from this program? 100%. So how would they go about that?

Michelle Williams: 6:49

It's really going to be within the node structure. So ideally, you know, these nodes uh will be highly visible. And the networks themselves, job seekers, will be able to connect into the networks, but the most significant way will be through our career portal, which has been renamed Chip Path, uh, which is still I know. Uh it's still careers.semi.org. And uh we have greatly expanded um the functionality of Chip Path. And it now has a job board. It takes people through a survey of their interests, their past jobs, you know, how they prefer to work, and starts mapping them to other jobs in the industry. So that's a great place. And this is part of the NNME. And so any job seeker, any student can get on there and find their pathway into the industry.

Francoise von Trapp: 7:39

So, how are you promoting this aside from like here sharing it within the industry, being on a podcast? How are you getting the word out to the potential participants, not so much from the administrators of the program, but the beneficiaries of the program?

Shari Liss: 7:58

I think that um part of the work that we need to do is awareness around this whole initiative in general. And the regional nodes will also be responsible for lifting this work in their region and the best way that they can interact with all of the partners that they've submitted as part of their regional node. So I think part of that's going to be some piece of the RFP and how we develop the actual programs from region to region in terms of doing outreach. I think the NNME we will continue to promote in every possible way over the next year as we build out the regional nodes.

Francoise von Trapp: 8:28

I mean, like will you be going to career fairs, absolutely colleges and all like the VA?

Shari Liss: 8:35

Um I mean, our team is certainly going to do the best we can everywhere we can, but I think a lot of it is gonna be relying on the regional nodes.

Francoise von Trapp: 8:42

Right, exactly. Obviously, you know, tell the story. There's only so much. I mean, how big is your team? 30. We have 30 people. Wow.

Shari Liss: 8:49

I mean that's like you have a team. We have a team. Aren't you lucky? We are.

Francoise von Trapp: 8:56

Just sitting here imagining how are you guys gonna handle this? It's just the two of you. It's not just us.

Shari Liss: 9:01

Yeah, and there's gonna be a lot of regional partners also that are doing incredible work, honestly, all around the country.

Michelle Williams: 9:06

Well, and this is part of our work as the hub is I, you know, the SEMI Foundation, we have such incredible uh industry outreach resources, but there's so many more out there. And so part of the work of the hub is gonna be collecting all of those resources, centralizing them, and then disseminating them because truly all real workforce development is hyper-local. So if we have practices that are working in one region, we can then lift those, adapt them, and have them work in other regions. So a lot of the work of the regional nodes is gonna be doing that on the ground outreach while the semi-foundation continues our national efforts. Okay, so you get national funding.

Francoise von Trapp: 9:42

Are you having any of the state, for instance, the New York Creates or the Arizona Commerce Authority, or you know, are they all part of this? I'm just trying to visualize it.

Shari Liss: 9:52

It depends on the regional nodes that are selected as who's going to be directly involved in that work, but the beneficiaries are nationwide, obviously. Right. And so I think that network that we create through this work will touch all the states. That's the goal, of course, of this work. And everybody will feed into the system in one way or another, or at least benefit from the system. But in terms of regional nodes, I believe in the first round we're s we're able to fund four regional nodes. That's the current thinking. You know, that's a starting point, right? But the hope is that everybody across the nation will benefit from that. But you know, it depends on which regional nodes are selected by the selection committee, um, determining who's going to then get it.

Francoise von Trapp: 10:30

So this is going out nationwide. So what regions are you anticipating? I mean, is it is it by state? Is it by like, oh, it's the heartland, it's the northeast, it's multi-state is what we're looking for.

Michelle Williams: 10:43

Because ultimately we're looking at potentially eight nodes altogether. So it will be, you know, these this work has to cross state lines. Um and ideally within those networks, yeah, the the economic development corporations are going to be a huge part of that. So we hope. I mean, they'd be they're an excellent partner. They do so much around job creation and workforce development. They're they're the kind of partners that um can really anchor some of this work.

Shari Liss: 11:07

They were definitely identified in the letters of interest across the board as being partners in each of the regional node applications.

Francoise von Trapp: 11:13

Okay, and how about like semi-members companies, how can they be involved?

Shari Liss: 11:18

Also part of the regional node involvement in terms of supporting mapping competencies and supporting identifying the needs in terms of jobs, like where they're having gaps or struggles in terms of hiring folks. So the idea is that the regional node would be working with their local partners to identify where are the needs, where are the challenges, what kinds of programs do we need to build in order to be successful in this industry? How can we help you as a company find the talent that you need? So the company voice is going to be critical in making this all come together.

Francoise von Trapp: 11:49

And is there a financial investment by the companies to participate in this?

Shari Liss: 11:53

No, not a not a requirement. Not a requirement. I imagine, though, that if a certain state were to receive funding or a certain collection of states were to become a regional node, those companies and those states, if they receive CHIPS funding, if they have workforce dollars, would probably contribute to the effort. I imagine that will happen.

Michelle Williams: 12:12

That's always the ideal state. I think one of the beautiful things about this particular RFP and and work is that we're not, we do not require a match, which is so important for some of the more, you know, um ground level efforts. But braided funding is always encouraged. And I I'm certain that well, it's likely there will be a question in the RFB around um, you know, what sort of resources do these regions bring to bear that can braid with NNME funding to have a really big impact.

Francoise von Trapp: 12:40

So, what's the one message that you want people to take away about NNME? Join us.

Michelle Williams: 12:48

Get involved, be a part of it. There is a role for virtually any organization that touches workforce development.

Shari Liss: 12:56

Beautiful.

Francoise von Trapp: 12:57

Beautifully said. So, in the few minutes we have left, um, we did want to say a little bit about something that's happening here in Arizona that's called the Semi-Quest. Um, can you talk about what that experience is?

Michelle Williams: 13:10

Sure. So Semi-Quest is a pop-up STEM experience that makes microelectronics engaging and accessible. Its whole purpose is to spark early interest and to feed into the larger talent pipeline. Um, it's at the Arizona Science Center, and the exhibit is open through the first week of January in 2026.

Francoise von Trapp: 13:29

And is this something that SEMI is like piloting here in Arizona and hoping to offer at other science centers around the country?

Michelle Williams: 13:37

That would be amazing. We've had such a tremendous outpouring of support for it. It is uh such an extraordinary experience over there. And uh, you know, yes, the idea of doing this at other science centers, but also there's now interest of doing it at other semicons because it is such an incredible add-on.

Francoise von Trapp: 13:53

Oh, that's really cool. Well, I'm looking forward to going to see that uh tomorrow. So if you're here in Arizona, go and check it out. I'm gonna say in advance that it's super cool. Um where can people go to learn more about NNME? nnme.org. Yep, it's right there. It's right there. Thank you, ladies, so much. Okay.

Shari Liss: 14:16

All the information and FAQs and contact information and all of it.

Francoise von Trapp: 14:21

Perfect. Well, we'll put a link in the show notes. Great. Thanks for joining me today. It was fun. Thank you for having me.

Michelle Williams: 14:27

Thank you.

Francoise von Trapp: 14:32

Here we are on the last day of Semicon West 2025, and this year's event featured three days of sustainability sessions focused in four key areas: EHS or Environmental Health and Safety, ESG, which is environmental social governance, and the semi-climate consortium and the energy collaborative. And so here to provide a recap and an update on what's happening in these initiatives are Saifie Usmani and Peilun Sun of SEMI. Welcome to the podcast, guys.

Saifi Usmani : 15:02

Thank you, Francoise. Thank you.

Francoise von Trapp: 15:04

Before we get started, can you each just give us a little bit about your background and your roles at SEMI? Saifi?

Saifi Usmani : 15:10

Hi, my name is Saifi Usmani. I am the vice president of global industry sustainability programs at SEMI. Um, before I came to SEMI, I was with EMD Electronics. I would a head of a business and one of the electronics businesses. And uh I come from a very proud tradition of sustainability from EMD electronics to semi.

Francoise von Trapp: 15:29

Yeah, I can see where that would be a good connection for you. I mean, EMD actually won the sustainability award from 3D Insights several years ago. And how about you, Palin?

Peilun Sun: 15:38

Hi, everyone. My name is Palun Sana. I am the program manager for SEMI Control Climate Consortium. I have been with SCC for two years, and currently I am leading all of our five working groups: scope one, scope two, scope three, emissions, emission reporting protocol, and baseline ambition setting and roadmapping.

Francoise von Trapp: 15:59

So I want to dive in and talk a little bit about how the sustainability initiative has matured and maybe changed over the years. Palin?

Peilun Sun: 16:09

Absolutely. So I'm we're speaking from the lens of SCC. So I want to focus on two points. Number one is SEC has seen growth in membership significantly over the past three years. We started back in 2022 and we initiated SEC during COP27. Back then we started with 65 uh founding members, and as of today, we have more than 100 members. So, you know, everybody's wanting to contribute to sustainability, seeing sustainability as a very um challenging issue that requires collaboration, innovation, or connection to uh address. And the second point I wanted to emphasize is when SEC first started, we were trying to hear from everybody, trying to understand where the industry is at in terms of its emission uh baseline. But uh I think after three years of doing a lot of the research work, a lot of understandings of the industry, now we're taking a step forward to understand what what are the initiatives, what are the projects that really can move the needle. And we want to prioritize and put all of our focuses and energies on making an impact for those specific initiatives.

Francoise von Trapp: 17:30

Saifie, anything to add to that?

Saifi Usmani : 17:32

Yeah, it's um Pelun said this is a very new program for us. It's only about three years old. With any program, it starts with a lot of energy and a lot of passion. And so it started small. The team actually was able to grow and attract a lot of interest from partners. And so ultimately from just founding three years ago, we've grown to over 100 members right now, and you should see the passion. We just finished uh three days of sustainability talks and presentations, and we just came back from a whole day of pavilion presentations. There were more than 100 members from all over the world and all over the country listening to us and showing interest and asking us for more feedback and more information outside of the hundred members that we have already included. So we have seen this grow from almost nothing to really a global interest.

Francoise von Trapp: 18:24

I'm really happy to hear that because I've been concerned about the US government's pull away from supporting sustainability initiatives. So I'm so happy to see that SEMI is continuing with that. Um, how has the program been impacted by the current administration's approach to sustainability?

Saifi Usmani : 18:42

So our program is mostly supported by members.

Francoise von Trapp: 18:45

Right.

Saifi Usmani : 18:45

And the members are all global enterprises. And they have very long-term visions and they are also corporate citizens. Okay. So they have a long-term map. They're marching towards that. And I have not seen any uh change in direction, maybe in change in uh in the public admission of some of their programs, but I've not changed seen any change in direction.

Francoise von Trapp: 19:11

That is so good to hear. I feel like um, you know, there was the potential for, especially in the US companies, if it's not a requirement for them anymore, or it's even discouraged to support it, that it could impact the program. But it sounds like companies are being good global citizens and sort of taking things into their own hands. Can you give maybe some examples of that where you're seeing that companies that are really continuing to pursue any specific companies standout that you can mention?

Saifi Usmani : 19:41

Or I will not call out a name, but I was doing a panel discussion yesterday and we were talking about this at the panel discussion with um with a couple of participants, and the generic answer that I received was companies have long-term visions.

Francoise von Trapp: 19:55

Right.

Saifi Usmani : 19:56

They look at the business case and the business value, and the decision is made on a business value. So ultimately, uh, when the case is presented, there is changes in the value because of uh changing uh input costs or changing uh demands. But at the end of the day, when they look at the business case, as long as that makes sense, they continue to invest in it.

Francoise von Trapp: 20:20

So are we still on track for net zero by 2030? Different companies have different targets.

Peilun Sun: 20:26

That is correct.

Francoise von Trapp: 20:27

Right. So has the sustainability consortium settled in on any specific targets that they're hoping their members pursue?

Peilun Sun: 20:35

Exactly. I think that's a great question. SEFI have actually put together a really great chart, and I've heard it being referenced so many times during the past three days of the uh conference. I can briefly cover it, but I'm uh I'm sure Safi can speak more to it. But basically, for our members, our members cover different parts of the value chain. Some of them are material suppliers, equipment suppliers, some of them are device makers, and some of them are end users. So typically what we see is end users, they have a more aggressive uh timeline to reach net zero, which is typically 2030. And then the further we move up the value chain, you know, the the further back the year it is for achieving net zero. So what SEC is trying to do is we wanted to leverage our consortium as a vehicle to bring that gap closer, right? So what we have been doing is we have been trying to set up an SEC ambition where we are aligning with everybody in the industry on a specific target that we can all work towards. So it may not be uh 2030, but the the goal is to move the industry faster than where uh what we're already heading to.

Francoise von Trapp: 21:53

Are the end users setting requirements for their suppliers as they would be, I think, wouldn't that be their scope three? Is the suppliers? So there's kind of this trickle effect where if they require it, it's going to push their suppliers to want to achieve those goals as well. And so another point of collaboration, right?

Saifi Usmani : 22:15

That's correct. So maybe taking up from what Pelon said, there is a 20-year gap between what the hyperscalers, which is ultimately the people who make the devices ready for us, right? And then the manufacturers, the chip manufacturers, have committed to roughly 2050. So there is a 20-year gap between what we need to do to meet net zero 1.5 degrees Celsius pathway, and where some of the best, most well-resourced chip manufacturers can commit to today. Where semi comes in is, hey, okay, that's what we can do based on what we know today. What if we put the collective power of all of us to innovate and collaborate and see if we can move this any faster? And that's where semi comes in. And we are trying to bring the the entire value chain together under this umbrella, semiconductor climate consortium, and then also through the energy collaborative to not only drive programs that we think will bring will move the needle, but then also work on advocacy with uh with governments in different regions to have low carbon energy, which is renewable energy, different forms of energy that can remove carbon from the atmosphere. So we have to b do both. We have to have adoption of the best practices that is available today. But we also have to innovate and and bring out new ways to reduce emissions and also use low carbon and electricity in the future. Combining those two, we can actually bridge that gap, the 20-year gap, to something less than 20 years.

Francoise von Trapp: 23:58

So, how is the energy collaborative different than the climate consortium?

Saifi Usmani : 24:03

So the energy collaborative is really designed around policy. So driving policy with governments to enable accessible, affordable renewable energy for our members. The semiconductor climate consortium is more around driving policy with the users.

Francoise von Trapp: 24:26

Okay.

Saifi Usmani : 24:27

So so that they utilize more of the available resources, figure out how to use renewable energy, figure out how to reduce emissions, how to measure them more on the user end, and the energy collaborative is more on the availability end.

Francoise von Trapp: 24:44

So one of the things we've been hearing a lot about lately is the energy drain caused by AI and data centers and how that's going to increase exponentially. And, you know, facing there's not enough energy to support that, that companies were even pushing out their net zero goals because bringing up the AI seemed more important than reaching the energy goals. Um, so how is this impacting that your efforts having to deal with that data explosion?

Saifi Usmani : 25:17

If anything, it has highlighted the urgency of what we are trying to do. And it has created this rush to a solution. So we are seeing more action on trying to prioritize uh energy availability because either way, to make energy available at such a fast pace, we have to add capacity. And if we're going to add capacity, why not add renewable energy capacity? And so there is a lot of activity that we are having mostly in Asia Pacific at this point in time, because that's where the biggest opportunity is to add more capacity. They are further behind. The much market is not mature. So that is where we are trying to add more capacity. Working with public and private partnership, we are bringing in the semi-collective voice to the governments. We are bringing in white papers, we are bringing in packages, sitting down in closed road conferences with governments and trying to tell them what is needed, showing them the roadmap, creating a demand signal.

Francoise von Trapp: 26:19

I had an interesting conversation last week at the IMAP Symposium with um Dr. Subu Ayer, who is working on chip lit technologies at UCLA. And we actually have a conversation about that. And it reminds me he was kind of bringing up not so much trying to solve the energy problem from the perspective of providing more energy, but reducing the need for energy and power of the chips themselves so that we could address it from that end because we're not going to be able to control people's use of their devices and their use of AI. We can't say, oh, you know, it's frivolous to go and Google what is Taylor Swift wearing today, and that he's he used that as an example. It's like six watts of power just to pose that query. And he's so he said it's more important to really reduce the need for power from our chips. So from Sami's perspective, I mean, you're addressing it from the energy side of things and the um, you know, renewable and power, but do you consider from the chip development side?

Saifi Usmani : 27:21

Yeah, so we can add that too. So actually several different ways, right? So no matter what, right, we have to reduce emissions. We have to have renewable energy available so that we, you know, the the fossil fuel energy is is not good for the environment. But at the end of the other end of the, we have to reuse, right? Reduce, reuse, recycle. That applies to energy as well. How do you reduce the use of energy? And so for that, uh, there is innovations going on in design, chip design. We just sponsored S3 startups for semiconductors, sorry, S3 session itself. Yeah, yeah. There were 150 participants and uh they they worked on three areas. One of them is how to reduce energy use for data centers, how to leverage NAI to improve design of uh smart chips, and how do we bring about new technologies for efficient semiconductor manufacturing? So absolutely right, right? We need to be able to reduce, but we also need to innovate.

Francoise von Trapp: 28:22

Right.

Peilun Sun: 28:22

Yeah, to build on what Safi just said, I think another way to like look at this from the SEC's perspective is you know, we are scope two working group is addressing the problem of energy. Uh, and then recently we have been splitting up the group into two tracks. One is focusing on renewable energy procurement. That's echoing what um Stefi just mentioned, but another important track is energy efficiency. So basically you were focusing on how do we uh run fabs more efficiently, so you know the energy that it takes to produce those fabs is actually lower. So even though the demand went up, the overall energy will stay the same or even lower for the pro uh the production or operation process.

Francoise von Trapp: 29:09

Okay. So we kind of have to wrap things up here. Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to add that you want people to take away from this?

Saifi Usmani : 29:17

I think the most important thing that we need to do is we need to be conscientious about energy use in our lives. So to your point, right? When we put a query through ChatGPT, we have to realize that it uses a lot of power. And so um we could be just better stewards of the environment ourselves, not just rely on some expert somewhere out in an office or a factory to do that. We as everyday citizens have also the opportunity to reduce the use of electricity, reduce um and recycle materials as much as possible. Okay.

Peilun Sun: 29:55

Yeah, my biggest takeaways over the three days of events Discussions. I think it's that semiconductor industry, more importantly, sustainability problem is a global problem. Even though Semicon West is being hosted here in the United States, we're bringing in uh members from APAC region, from EU region, they all come in with different regulatory uh requirements. So we still have to, you know, the semiconductor industry is serving the whole world. Exactly. So that's the takeaway is that we need to solve this together, uh, given whatever turbulence that we're facing.

Francoise von Trapp: 30:35

And the baseline should be the most stringent um guidelines, basically. Absolutely. Right. Okay. Well, I really appreciate your time today. Thanks for joining me. Where can people go to learn more? Thank you.

Saifi Usmani : 30:48

Well, they can go to semi.org and sustainability.

Francoise von Trapp: 30:54

Okay. Next week, join us for more of Semicon West as we continue our coverage with conversations from the show floor. We'll be talking with 3D Insights members to get their take on the week's activities. It's gonna be a good one. There's lots more to come, so tune in next time to the 3D Insights podcast. The 3D Insights podcast is a production of 3D Insights LLC.