Gurley argues US should build semiconductor plants in Mexico or Vietnam rather than onshore them given labor model realities.
“Like I, you know, I'm not- Provocative. Like, yeah, it's provocative because it says that if America is really worried about the concentration in Taiwan, they should probably be trying to help build semiconductor plants in Mexico or Vietnam or that kind of thing versus bringing them here”
Gurley calls the Altman-Masa plan to compete with Nvidia radical given AMD and others have decades head start.
“There are already people competing with Nvidia. AMD's competing with Like, there are other people that have somewhat of a head start. Like decades.”
Gurley cites Morris Chang arguing Taiwan's chip competitiveness stems from labor model incompatible with US norms.
“Morris makes the point that the reason Taiwan is competitive has to do with the labor model that exists there and the type of work people are willing to do and your ability to retain them. And he walks through his history of hiring in Texas and other parts of”
Gurley says Morris Chang identifies Vietnam or India as likely disruptors, not advanced economies like the US.
“And his says the country must more likely to disrupt Taiwan would be Vietnam or India, Not an advanced culture.”
Gurley says new chip startups face impossible barriers competing with Nvidia for TSMC capacity and achieving good yields.
“How are you going to out compete Nvidia for TSMC's time? Right. Like, how are you going get on that place? And it's hard, you know?”
Gurley expresses skepticism about sovereign server stacks, comparing them to Microsoft's failed NT server-per-employee pitch given rapid depreciation.
“So I would just, there was a time at which Microsoft was trying to convince the world that we'd all need an NT server for every employee.”
Gurley calls plans to compete with Nvidia radical given existing competitors like AMD already have decades-long head starts.
“There are already people competing with Nvidia. AMD's competing with Like, there are other people that have somewhat of a head start.”