October 27, 2025 • 31 mins
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.
A global association, SEMI represents the entire electronics manufacturing and design supply chain.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Francoise von Trapp (00:00):
This episode of the 3D Insights
Podcast is brought to you bySEMI, the leading
microelectronics industryassociation with programs that
help its members grow theirbusiness and address top
challenges worldwide.
With a global focus onadvocacy, the microelectronics
supply chain, sustainability,and workforce development, SEMI
works with industry leaders toalign goals, share best
(00:21):
practices, and accelerateprogress.
Learn more at semi.org.
Hi there.
I'm Francoise von Trapp, andthis is the 3D InCites Podcast.
(00:43):
Hi everyone.
This week we are recordinglive from SEMICON West, and this
time it's taking place inPhoenix, Arizona, in October,
which is a change.
And among the programming thisweek is Semi Foundation's
efforts in the workforcedevelopment for the
semiconductor industry.
And they've had some prettyexciting news this week about a
program they've been working onfor a while and they finally get
(01:05):
to talk about it.
And so I'm here and excited towelcome Shari Lisss and Michelle
Williams to talk about theNational Network for
Microelectronics Education, themotivations behind it, and the
current challenges you'refacing, if we could talk about
that.
Michelle Williams (01:20):
Happy to.
All of the above.
Francoise von Trapp (01:23):
Okay.
So before we dive in, you'veboth been on the podcast before.
Can you just, for anybody whohasn't heard you, just introduce
yourself and your role at SEMIFoundation?
Shari Liss (01:33):
Sure.
Hello, my name is Shari Liss.
I'm the Vice President forGlobal Workforce Development and
Initiatives for SEMI.
I oversee our global workforceprogramming across all eight of
our regions.
Semi-Foundation,Semi-University, Everything
Workforce.
Francoise von Trapp (01:48):
Okay, so this isn't just a
semi-foundation initiative.
Shari Liss (01:52):
This is actually a semi-foundation initiative.
It is.
Okay.
Francoise von Trapp (01:55):
Because I usually I usually try to be very
careful about the differencebetween semi and semi-foundation
because it's a different thing.
Shari Liss (02:01):
I sit I sit in semi.
Okay.
But this initiative is part ofthe semi-foundation.
It was awarded to thesemi-foundation, yes.
Okay.
I am Michelle Williams.
I'm the executive director ofthe SEMI Foundation.
And uh Yeah, this is this hasbeen a big focus of ours for the
last many months.
Francoise von Trapp (02:21):
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 raisond'etre?
Yes, what is the raison d'etre?
Michelle Williams (02:38):
Love that.
The NNME, did I say it slowlyenough?
Yeah.
Uh it is a national effort toattract and educate Americans in
our industry.
And through it, we areconnecting educators, employers,
workforce systems, andpolicymakers to design workforce
development solutions in anational way.
So in the model, which is a huband spoke model, the SEMI
(03:01):
Foundation is the coordinatinghub of the NME.
And uh Sherry will get to tellyou our exciting news that she
announced on the main stage uhyesterday.
But very soon we're gonna havewhat's called regional nodes,
and those nodes are gonna lift alot of this work.
So um modernizing curriculum,making sure it's aligned with
industry, a lot of industryawareness work.
(03:23):
And a big piece of our work isgoing to be gathering that
information and all that greatwork from all the nodes and then
disseminating it nationwide.
So we are gonna be building newprograms and initiatives, but
we're also gonna be sharing whatis the great work that's
already happening out there.
Francoise von Trapp (03:38):
Is the target the education system K
through 12?
I see colleges, universities,workforce boards.
Shari Liss (03:44):
How is it all connected?
The target is everybody doingworkforce development in
whatever way possible.
The target is making sure thatwe can fill every role that's
needed in this industry in someway or have a handle in making
that happen.
So we're looking at how do weattract students into this?
How do we get kids excited inK-12?
How do we align competenciesacross community colleges with
(04:06):
what's needed in industry?
How do we do the same with theuniversity system?
How do we upskill and reskill?
So it's looking at everythingthat's needed in this industry
and who are the partners thatcan make that happen.
That's huge.
It is huge.
Francoise von Trapp (04:18):
It is huge and exciting.
There are people at SEMIFoundation making this work,
right?
But you must be working withorganizations around the
country.
Shari Liss (04:26):
Yeah.
So the goal, as as Michellementioned, it's this hub and
spoke model.
So what I was able to announceon the main stage yesterday is
that we're launching the requestfor proposals, the RFP, on
Monday, October 13th.
But we're launching the RFP toidentify regional nodes around
the country.
So the regional nodes willconsist of partners across
industry, academia, workforceboards, nonprofits, all the
(04:50):
agencies that can come togetherto build all of these programs.
And so the hope is that thoseregional nodes will help develop
what's needed in support of theindustry.
Francoise von Trapp (04:59):
So would you say it's a collaboration
between industry, academia,government, and yeah.
Yes.
Shari Liss (05:08):
And yes.
And and nonprofits andeverybody that has a hand in
this.
And the stakeholders are all ofthose different pockets, and
our and our members really aregonna be the beneficiaries in
terms of finding the talent thatthey need in order to fill the
ecosystems.
How is this funded?
Uh it is funded as part of theCHIPS Act.
Okay.
And it is funded for us throughthe National Science
(05:30):
Foundation.
Francoise von Trapp (05:32):
Okay.
And so is SEMI Foundation thedistribution channel?
Like, do you receive all thefunds and then you send them out
to whatever node isparticipating?
Michelle Williams (05:43):
Yeah, we have funding to support uh our work
as the hub, which is somewhatdistinct from the work of the
nodes.
And then uh we'll put all thenodes under contract.
And yes, so we will receive thefunds from the National Science
Foundation and then disseminateit to the nodes.
Francoise von Trapp (05:58):
And you'll be getting the RFPs in and
deciding from there who wins.
Group of people that will bedeciding.
Shari Liss (06:05):
It's not the semi-foundation alone.
Michelle Williams (06:07):
No.
Francoise von Trapp (06:08):
Okay.
So you've been working on thisfor a few months.
So what has the early momentumbeen?
Shari Liss (06:16):
It's been pretty amazing, to be honest.
In August, we released a letterof interest to gather interest
from around the country to get asense of who was interested in
leading regional nodes, who wasinterested in being a partner in
regional nodes.
We received almost 300 LOIs inresponse to the call, and I
think we received LOIs fromevery state in the nation.
Francoise von Trapp (06:34):
How would someone who is looking to either
reskill, upskill, let's saythey were working at Intel and
they got laid off, can theybenefit from this program?
100%.
So how would they go aboutthat?
Michelle Williams (06:49):
It's really going to be within the node
structure.
So ideally, you know, thesenodes uh will be highly visible.
And the networks themselves,job seekers, will be able to
connect into the networks, butthe 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.
(07:13):
And uh we have greatly expandedum the functionality of Chip
Path.
And it now has a job board.
It takes people through asurvey of their interests, their
past jobs, you know, how theyprefer to work, and starts
mapping them to other jobs inthe industry.
So that's a great place.
And this is part of the NNME.
And so any job seeker, anystudent can get on there and
(07:36):
find their pathway into theindustry.
Francoise von Trapp (07:39):
So, how are you promoting this aside from
like here sharing it within theindustry, being on a podcast?
How are you getting the wordout to the potential
participants, not so much fromthe administrators of the
program, but the beneficiariesof the program?
Shari Liss (07:58):
I think that um part of the work that we need to do
is awareness around this wholeinitiative in general.
And the regional nodes willalso be responsible for lifting
this work in their region andthe best way that they can
interact with all of thepartners that they've submitted
as part of their regional node.
So I think part of that's goingto be some piece of the RFP and
how we develop the actualprograms from region to region
(08:20):
in terms of doing outreach.
I think the NNME we willcontinue to promote in every
possible way over the next yearas we build out the regional
nodes.
Francoise von Trapp (08:28):
I mean, like will you be going to career
fairs, absolutely colleges andall like the VA?
Shari Liss (08:35):
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 regionalnodes.
Francoise von Trapp (08:42):
Right, exactly.
Obviously, you know, tell thestory.
There's only so much.
I mean, how big is your team?
30.
We have 30 people.
Wow.
Shari Liss (08:49):
I mean that's like you have a team.
We have a team.
Aren't you lucky?
We are.
Francoise von Trapp (08:56):
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 (09:01):
Yeah, and there's gonna be a lot of regional
partners also that are doingincredible work, honestly, all
around the country.
Michelle Williams (09:06):
Well, and this is part of our work as the
hub is I, you know, the SEMIFoundation, we have such
incredible uh industry outreachresources, but there's so many
more out there.
And so part of the work of thehub is gonna be collecting all
of those resources, centralizingthem, and then disseminating
them because truly all realworkforce development is
hyper-local.
So if we have practices thatare working in one region, we
(09:28):
can then lift those, adapt them,and have them work in other
regions.
So a lot of the work of theregional nodes is gonna be doing
that on the ground outreachwhile the semi-foundation
continues our national efforts.
Okay, so you get nationalfunding.
Francoise von Trapp (09:42):
Are you having any of the state, for
instance, the New York Createsor the Arizona Commerce
Authority, or you know, are theyall part of this?
I'm just trying to visualizeit.
Shari Liss (09:52):
It depends on the regional nodes that are selected
as who's going to be directlyinvolved in that work, but the
beneficiaries are nationwide,obviously.
Right.
And so I think that networkthat we create through this work
will touch all the states.
That's the goal, of course, ofthis work.
And everybody will feed intothe system in one way or
another, or at least benefitfrom the system.
But in terms of regional nodes,I believe in the first round
(10:14):
we're s we're able to fund fourregional nodes.
That's the current thinking.
You know, that's a startingpoint, right?
But the hope is that everybodyacross the nation will benefit
from that.
But you know, it depends onwhich regional nodes are
selected by the selectioncommittee, um, determining who's
going to then get it.
Francoise von Trapp (10:30):
So this is going out nationwide.
So what regions are youanticipating?
I mean, is it is it by state?
Is it by like, oh, it's theheartland, it's the northeast,
it's multi-state is what we'relooking for.
Michelle Williams (10:43):
Because ultimately we're looking at
potentially eight nodesaltogether.
So it will be, you know, thesethis work has to cross state
lines.
Um and ideally within thosenetworks, yeah, the the economic
development corporations aregoing to be a huge part of that.
So we hope.
I mean, they'd be they're anexcellent partner.
They do so much around jobcreation and workforce
development.
They're they're the kind ofpartners that um can really
(11:06):
anchor some of this work.
Shari Liss (11:07):
They were definitely identified in the letters of
interest across the board asbeing partners in each of the
regional node applications.
Francoise von Trapp (11:13):
Okay, and how about like semi-members
companies, how can they beinvolved?
Shari Liss (11:18):
Also part of the regional node involvement in
terms of supporting mappingcompetencies and supporting
identifying the needs in termsof jobs, like where they're
having gaps or struggles interms of hiring folks.
So the idea is that theregional node would be working
with their local partners toidentify where are the needs,
where are the challenges, whatkinds of programs do we need to
build in order to be successfulin this industry?
(11:40):
How can we help you as acompany find the talent that you
need?
So the company voice is goingto be critical in making this
all come together.
Francoise von Trapp (11:49):
And is there a financial investment by
the companies to participate inthis?
Shari Liss (11:53):
No, not a not a requirement.
Not a requirement.
I imagine, though, that if acertain state were to receive
funding or a certain collectionof states were to become a
regional node, those companiesand those states, if they
receive CHIPS funding, if theyhave workforce dollars, would
probably contribute to theeffort.
I imagine that will happen.
Michelle Williams (12:12):
That's always the ideal state.
I think one of the beautifulthings about this particular RFP
and and work is that we're not,we do not require a match,
which is so important for someof the more, you know, um ground
level efforts.
But braided funding is alwaysencouraged.
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
(12:34):
do these regions bring to bearthat 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 virtuallyany organization that touches
workforce development.
Shari Liss (12:56):
Beautiful.
Francoise von Trapp (12:57):
Beautifully said.
So, in the few minutes we haveleft, um, we did want to say a
little bit about somethingthat's happening here in Arizona
that's called the Semi-Quest.
Um, can you talk about whatthat experience is?
Michelle Williams (13:10):
Sure.
So Semi-Quest is a pop-up STEMexperience that makes
microelectronics engaging andaccessible.
Its whole purpose is to sparkearly interest and to feed into
the larger talent pipeline.
Um, it's at the Arizona ScienceCenter, and the exhibit is open
through the first week ofJanuary in 2026.
Francoise von Trapp (13:29):
And is this something that SEMI is like
piloting here in Arizona andhoping to offer at other science
centers around the country?
Michelle Williams (13:37):
That would be amazing.
We've had such a tremendousoutpouring of support for it.
It is uh such an extraordinaryexperience over there.
And uh, you know, yes, the ideaof doing this at other science
centers, but also there's nowinterest of doing it at other
semicons because it is such anincredible add-on.
Francoise von Trapp (13:53):
Oh, that's really cool.
Well, I'm looking forward togoing to see that uh tomorrow.
So if you're here in Arizona,go and check it out.
I'm gonna say in advance thatit's super cool.
Um where can people go to learnmore about NNME?
nnme.org.
Yep, it's right there.
It's right there.
Thank you, ladies, so much.
(14:14):
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 theshow 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 eventfeatured three days of
sustainability sessions focusedin four key areas: EHS or
Environmental Health and Safety,ESG, which is environmental
social governance, and thesemi-climate consortium and the
energy collaborative.
(14:52):
And so here to provide a recapand an update on what's
happening in these initiativesare 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 yourbackground and your roles at
SEMI?
Saifi?
Saifi Usmani (15:10):
Hi, my name is Saifi Usmani.
I am the vice president ofglobal industry sustainability
programs at SEMI.
Um, before I came to SEMI, Iwas with EMD Electronics.
I would a head of a businessand one of the electronics
businesses.
And uh I come from a very proudtradition 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 thesustainability 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 forSEMI Control Climate Consortium.
I have been with SCC for twoyears, and currently I am
leading all of our five workinggroups: scope one, scope two,
scope three, emissions, emissionreporting protocol, and
baseline ambition setting androadmapping.
Francoise von Trapp (15:59):
So I want to dive in and talk a little bit
about how the sustainabilityinitiative has matured and maybe
changed over the years.
Palin?
Peilun Sun (16:09):
Absolutely.
So I'm we're speaking from thelens of SCC.
So I want to focus on twopoints.
Number one is SEC has seengrowth in membership
significantly over the pastthree years.
We started back in 2022 and weinitiated SEC during COP27.
(16:32):
Back then we started with 65 uhfounding members, and as of
today, we have more than 100members.
So, you know, everybody'swanting to contribute to
sustainability, seeingsustainability as a very um
challenging issue that requirescollaboration, innovation, or
connection to uh address.
(16:52):
And the second point I wantedto emphasize is when SEC first
started, we were trying to hearfrom everybody, trying to
understand where the industry isat in terms of its emission uh
baseline.
But uh I think after threeyears of doing a lot of the
research work, a lot ofunderstandings of the industry,
(17:13):
now we're taking a step forwardto understand what what are the
initiatives, what are theprojects that really can move
the needle.
And we want to prioritize andput all of our focuses and
energies on making an impact forthose 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 yearsold.
With any program, it startswith a lot of energy and a lot
of passion.
And so it started small.
The team actually was able togrow and attract a lot of
interest from partners.
And so ultimately from justfounding three years ago, we've
(17:54):
grown to over 100 members rightnow, and you should see the
passion.
We just finished uh three daysof sustainability talks and
presentations, and we just cameback from a whole day of
pavilion presentations.
There were more than 100members from all over the world
and all over the countrylistening to us and showing
interest and asking us for morefeedback and more information
(18:16):
outside of the hundred membersthat we have already included.
So we have seen this grow fromalmost 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 USgovernment's pull away from
supporting sustainabilityinitiatives.
So I'm so happy to see thatSEMI is continuing with that.
Um, how has the program beenimpacted by the current
administration's approach tosustainability?
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-termvisions 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 uhchange in direction, maybe in
change in uh in the publicadmission of some of their
(19:08):
programs, but I've not changedseen any change in direction.
Francoise von Trapp (19:11):
That is so good to hear.
I feel like um, you know, therewas the potential for,
especially in the US companies,if it's not a requirement for
them anymore, or it's evendiscouraged to support it, that
it could impact the program.
But it sounds like companiesare being good global citizens
and sort of taking things intotheir own hands.
(19:32):
Can you give maybe someexamples of that where you're
seeing that companies that arereally continuing to pursue any
specific companies standout thatyou can mention?
Saifi Usmani (19:41):
Or I will not call out a name, but I was doing
a panel discussion yesterdayand we were talking about this
at the panel discussion with umwith a couple of participants,
and the generic answer that Ireceived 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 madeon a business value.
So ultimately, uh, when thecase is presented, there is
changes in the value because ofuh changing uh input costs or
changing uh demands.
But at the end of the day, whenthey 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 havedifferent targets.
Peilun Sun (20:26):
That is correct.
Francoise von Trapp (20:27):
Right.
So has the sustainabilityconsortium settled in on any
specific targets that they'rehoping their members pursue?
Peilun Sun (20:35):
Exactly.
I think that's a greatquestion.
SEFI have actually put togethera really great chart, and I've
heard it being referenced somany times during the past three
days of the uh conference.
I can briefly cover it, but I'muh I'm sure Safi can speak more
to it.
But basically, for our members,our members cover different
parts of the value chain.
(20:57):
Some of them are materialsuppliers, equipment suppliers,
some of them are device makers,and some of them are end users.
So typically what we see is endusers, they have a more
aggressive uh timeline to reachnet zero, which is typically
2030.
And then the further we move upthe value chain, you know, the
the further back the year it isfor achieving net zero.
(21:20):
So what SEC is trying to do iswe wanted to leverage our
consortium as a vehicle to bringthat gap closer, right?
So what we have been doing iswe have been trying to set up an
SEC ambition where we arealigning with everybody in the
industry on a specific targetthat we can all work towards.
(21:43):
So it may not be uh 2030, butthe the goal is to move the
industry faster than where uhwhat we're already heading to.
Francoise von Trapp (21:53):
Are the end users setting requirements for
their suppliers as they wouldbe, I think, wouldn't that be
their scope three?
Is the suppliers?
So there's kind of this trickleeffect where if they require
it, it's going to push theirsuppliers to want to achieve
those goals as well.
And so another point ofcollaboration, right?
Saifi Usmani (22:15):
That's correct.
So maybe taking up from whatPelon said, there is a 20-year
gap between what thehyperscalers, which is
ultimately the people who makethe devices ready for us, right?
And then the manufacturers, thechip manufacturers, have
committed to roughly 2050.
So there is a 20-year gapbetween what we need to do to
(22:36):
meet net zero 1.5 degreesCelsius pathway, and where some
of the best, most well-resourcedchip 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 collectivepower of all of us to innovate
and collaborate and see if wecan move this any faster?
(22:58):
And that's where semi comes in.
And we are trying to bring thethe entire value chain together
under this umbrella,semiconductor climate
consortium, and then alsothrough the energy collaborative
to not only drive programs thatwe think will bring will move
the needle, but then also workon advocacy with uh with
(23:24):
governments in different regionsto have low carbon energy,
which is renewable energy,different forms of energy that
can remove carbon from theatmosphere.
So we have to b do both.
We have to have adoption of thebest practices that is
available today.
But we also have to innovateand and bring out new ways to
(23:46):
reduce emissions and also uselow carbon and electricity in
the future.
Combining those two, we canactually bridge that gap, the
20-year gap, to something lessthan 20 years.
Francoise von Trapp (23:58):
So, how is the energy collaborative
different than the climateconsortium?
Saifi Usmani (24:03):
So the energy collaborative is really designed
around policy.
So driving policy withgovernments to enable
accessible, affordable renewableenergy for our members.
The semiconductor climateconsortium 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 userenewable energy, figure out
how to reduce emissions, how tomeasure them more on the user
end, and the energycollaborative 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 energydrain caused by AI and data
centers and how that's going toincrease exponentially.
And, you know, facing there'snot enough energy to support
that, that companies were evenpushing out their net zero goals
(25:05):
because bringing up the AIseemed more important than
reaching the energy goals.
Um, so how is this impactingthat 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 toa solution.
So we are seeing more action ontrying to prioritize uh energy
availability because either way,to make energy available at
such a fast pace, we have to addcapacity.
(25:39):
And if we're going to addcapacity, why not add renewable
energy capacity?
And so there is a lot ofactivity that we are having
mostly in Asia Pacific at thispoint in time, because that's
where the biggest opportunity isto add more capacity.
They are further behind.
The much market is not mature.
So that is where we are tryingto add more capacity.
(25:59):
Working with public and privatepartnership, we are bringing in
the semi-collective voice tothe governments.
We are bringing in whitepapers, we are bringing in
packages, sitting down in closedroad conferences with
governments and trying to tellthem what is needed, showing
them the roadmap, creating ademand signal.
Francoise von Trapp (26:19):
I had an interesting conversation last
week at the IMAP Symposium withum Dr.
Subu Ayer, who is working onchip lit technologies at UCLA.
And we actually have aconversation about that.
And it reminds me he was kindof bringing up not so much
trying to solve the energyproblem from the perspective of
providing more energy, butreducing the need for energy and
(26:41):
power of the chips themselvesso that we could address it from
that end because we're notgoing to be able to control
people's use of their devicesand their use of AI.
We can't say, oh, you know,it's frivolous to go and Google
what is Taylor Swift wearingtoday, and that he's he used
that as an example.
It's like six watts of powerjust to pose that query.
(27:03):
And he's so he said it's moreimportant to really reduce the
need for power from our chips.
So from Sami's perspective, Imean, you're addressing it from
the energy side of things andthe um, you know, renewable and
power, but do you consider fromthe chip development side?
Saifi Usmani (27:21):
Yeah, so we can add that too.
So actually several differentways, right?
So no matter what, right, wehave to reduce emissions.
We have to have renewableenergy available so that we, you
know, the the fossil fuelenergy is is not good for the
environment.
But at the end of the other endof the, we have to reuse,
right?
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
(27:42):
That applies to energy as well.
How do you reduce the use ofenergy?
And so for that, uh, there isinnovations going on in design,
chip design.
We just sponsored S3 startupsfor semiconductors, sorry, S3
session itself.
Yeah, yeah.
There were 150 participants anduh they they worked on three
areas.
(28:02):
One of them is how to reduceenergy use for data centers, how
to leverage NAI to improvedesign of uh smart chips, and
how do we bring about newtechnologies 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 thisfrom the SEC's perspective is
you know, we are scope twoworking group is addressing the
problem of energy.
Uh, and then recently we havebeen splitting up the group into
two tracks.
One is focusing on renewableenergy procurement.
(28:44):
That's echoing what um Stefijust mentioned, but another
important track is energyefficiency.
So basically you were focusingon how do we uh run fabs more
efficiently, so you know theenergy that it takes to produce
those fabs is actually lower.
So even though the demand wentup, the overall energy will stay
(29:04):
the same or even lower for thepro uh the production or
operation process.
Francoise von Trapp (29:09):
Okay.
So we kind of have to wrapthings up here.
Do you have any final thoughtsthat you would like to add that
you want people to take awayfrom this?
Saifi Usmani (29:17):
I think the most important thing that we need to
do is we need to beconscientious about energy use
in our lives.
So to your point, right?
When we put a query throughChatGPT, we have to realize that
it uses a lot of power.
And so um we could be justbetter stewards of the
(29:38):
environment ourselves, not justrely on some expert somewhere
out in an office or a factory todo that.
We as everyday citizens havealso the opportunity to reduce
the use of electricity, reduceum 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 semiconductorindustry, more importantly,
sustainability problem is aglobal problem.
Even though Semicon West isbeing hosted here in the United
States, we're bringing in uhmembers from APAC region, from
(30:17):
EU region, they all come in withdifferent 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 thatwe need to solve this together,
uh, given whatever turbulencethat 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 yourtime today.
Thanks for joining me.
Where can people go to learnmore?
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 ofSemicon West as we continue our
coverage with conversations fromthe show floor.
We'll be talking with 3DInsights members to get their
take on the week's activities.
It's gonna be a good one.
There's lots more to come, sotune in next time to the 3D
(31:15):
Insights podcast.
The 3D Insights podcast is aproduction of 3D Insights LLC.
This episode of the 3D Insights
Podcast is brought to you bySEMI, the leading
microelectronics industryassociation with programs that
help its members grow theirbusiness and address top
challenges worldwide.
With a global focus onadvocacy, the microelectronics
supply chain, sustainability,and workforce development, SEMI
works with industry leaders toalign goals, share best
(00:21):
practices, and accelerateprogress.
Learn more at semi.org.
Hi there.
I'm Francoise von Trapp, andthis is the 3D InCites Podcast.
(00:43):
Hi everyone.
This week we are recordinglive from SEMICON West, and this
time it's taking place inPhoenix, Arizona, in October,
which is a change.
And among the programming thisweek is Semi Foundation's
efforts in the workforcedevelopment for the
semiconductor industry.
And they've had some prettyexciting news this week about a
program they've been working onfor a while and they finally get
(01:05):
to talk about it.
And so I'm here and excited towelcome Shari Lisss and Michelle
Williams to talk about theNational Network for
Microelectronics Education, themotivations behind it, and the
current challenges you'refacing, if we could talk about
that.
Michelle Williams (01:20):
Happy to.
All of the above.
Francoise von Trapp (01:23):
Okay.
So before we dive in, you'veboth been on the podcast before.
Can you just, for anybody whohasn't heard you, just introduce
yourself and your role at SEMIFoundation?
Shari Liss (01:33):
Sure.
Hello, my name is Shari Liss.
I'm the Vice President forGlobal Workforce Development and
Initiatives for SEMI.
I oversee our global workforceprogramming across all eight of
our regions.
Semi-Foundation,Semi-University, Everything
Workforce.
Francoise von Trapp (01:48):
Okay, so this isn't just a
semi-foundation initiative.
Shari Liss (01:52):
This is actually a semi-foundation initiative.
It is.
Okay.
Francoise von Trapp (01:55):
Because I usually I usually try to be very
careful about the differencebetween semi and semi-foundation
because it's a different thing.
Shari Liss (02:01):
I sit I sit in semi.
Okay.
But this initiative is part ofthe semi-foundation.
It was awarded to thesemi-foundation, yes.
Okay.
I am Michelle Williams.
I'm the executive director ofthe SEMI Foundation.
And uh Yeah, this is this hasbeen a big focus of ours for the
last many months.
Francoise von Trapp (02:21):
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 raisond'etre?
Yes, what is the raison d'etre?
Michelle Williams (02:38):
Love that.
The NNME, did I say it slowlyenough?
Yeah.
Uh it is a national effort toattract and educate Americans in
our industry.
And through it, we areconnecting educators, employers,
workforce systems, andpolicymakers to design workforce
development solutions in anational way.
So in the model, which is a huband spoke model, the SEMI
(03:01):
Foundation is the coordinatinghub of the NME.
And uh Sherry will get to tellyou our exciting news that she
announced on the main stage uhyesterday.
But very soon we're gonna havewhat's called regional nodes,
and those nodes are gonna lift alot of this work.
So um modernizing curriculum,making sure it's aligned with
industry, a lot of industryawareness work.
(03:23):
And a big piece of our work isgoing to be gathering that
information and all that greatwork from all the nodes and then
disseminating it nationwide.
So we are gonna be building newprograms and initiatives, but
we're also gonna be sharing whatis the great work that's
already happening out there.
Francoise von Trapp (03:38):
Is the target the education system K
through 12?
I see colleges, universities,workforce boards.
Shari Liss (03:44):
How is it all connected?
The target is everybody doingworkforce development in
whatever way possible.
The target is making sure thatwe can fill every role that's
needed in this industry in someway or have a handle in making
that happen.
So we're looking at how do weattract students into this?
How do we get kids excited inK-12?
How do we align competenciesacross community colleges with
(04:06):
what's needed in industry?
How do we do the same with theuniversity system?
How do we upskill and reskill?
So it's looking at everythingthat's needed in this industry
and who are the partners thatcan make that happen.
That's huge.
It is huge.
Francoise von Trapp (04:18):
It is huge and exciting.
There are people at SEMIFoundation making this work,
right?
But you must be working withorganizations around the
country.
Shari Liss (04:26):
Yeah.
So the goal, as as Michellementioned, it's this hub and
spoke model.
So what I was able to announceon the main stage yesterday is
that we're launching the requestfor proposals, the RFP, on
Monday, October 13th.
But we're launching the RFP toidentify regional nodes around
the country.
So the regional nodes willconsist of partners across
industry, academia, workforceboards, nonprofits, all the
(04:50):
agencies that can come togetherto build all of these programs.
And so the hope is that thoseregional nodes will help develop
what's needed in support of theindustry.
Francoise von Trapp (04:59):
So would you say it's a collaboration
between industry, academia,government, and yeah.
Yes.
Shari Liss (05:08):
And yes.
And and nonprofits andeverybody that has a hand in
this.
And the stakeholders are all ofthose different pockets, and
our and our members really aregonna be the beneficiaries in
terms of finding the talent thatthey need in order to fill the
ecosystems.
How is this funded?
Uh it is funded as part of theCHIPS Act.
Okay.
And it is funded for us throughthe National Science
(05:30):
Foundation.
Francoise von Trapp (05:32):
Okay.
And so is SEMI Foundation thedistribution channel?
Like, do you receive all thefunds and then you send them out
to whatever node isparticipating?
Michelle Williams (05:43):
Yeah, we have funding to support uh our work
as the hub, which is somewhatdistinct from the work of the
nodes.
And then uh we'll put all thenodes under contract.
And yes, so we will receive thefunds from the National Science
Foundation and then disseminateit to the nodes.
Francoise von Trapp (05:58):
And you'll be getting the RFPs in and
deciding from there who wins.
Group of people that will bedeciding.
Shari Liss (06:05):
It's not the semi-foundation alone.
Michelle Williams (06:07):
No.
Francoise von Trapp (06:08):
Okay.
So you've been working on thisfor a few months.
So what has the early momentumbeen?
Shari Liss (06:16):
It's been pretty amazing, to be honest.
In August, we released a letterof interest to gather interest
from around the country to get asense of who was interested in
leading regional nodes, who wasinterested in being a partner in
regional nodes.
We received almost 300 LOIs inresponse to the call, and I
think we received LOIs fromevery state in the nation.
Francoise von Trapp (06:34):
How would someone who is looking to either
reskill, upskill, let's saythey were working at Intel and
they got laid off, can theybenefit from this program?
100%.
So how would they go aboutthat?
Michelle Williams (06:49):
It's really going to be within the node
structure.
So ideally, you know, thesenodes uh will be highly visible.
And the networks themselves,job seekers, will be able to
connect into the networks, butthe 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.
(07:13):
And uh we have greatly expandedum the functionality of Chip
Path.
And it now has a job board.
It takes people through asurvey of their interests, their
past jobs, you know, how theyprefer to work, and starts
mapping them to other jobs inthe industry.
So that's a great place.
And this is part of the NNME.
And so any job seeker, anystudent can get on there and
(07:36):
find their pathway into theindustry.
Francoise von Trapp (07:39):
So, how are you promoting this aside from
like here sharing it within theindustry, being on a podcast?
How are you getting the wordout to the potential
participants, not so much fromthe administrators of the
program, but the beneficiariesof the program?
Shari Liss (07:58):
I think that um part of the work that we need to do
is awareness around this wholeinitiative in general.
And the regional nodes willalso be responsible for lifting
this work in their region andthe best way that they can
interact with all of thepartners that they've submitted
as part of their regional node.
So I think part of that's goingto be some piece of the RFP and
how we develop the actualprograms from region to region
(08:20):
in terms of doing outreach.
I think the NNME we willcontinue to promote in every
possible way over the next yearas we build out the regional
nodes.
Francoise von Trapp (08:28):
I mean, like will you be going to career
fairs, absolutely colleges andall like the VA?
Shari Liss (08:35):
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 regionalnodes.
Francoise von Trapp (08:42):
Right, exactly.
Obviously, you know, tell thestory.
There's only so much.
I mean, how big is your team?
30.
We have 30 people.
Wow.
Shari Liss (08:49):
I mean that's like you have a team.
We have a team.
Aren't you lucky?
We are.
Francoise von Trapp (08:56):
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 (09:01):
Yeah, and there's gonna be a lot of regional
partners also that are doingincredible work, honestly, all
around the country.
Michelle Williams (09:06):
Well, and this is part of our work as the
hub is I, you know, the SEMIFoundation, we have such
incredible uh industry outreachresources, but there's so many
more out there.
And so part of the work of thehub is gonna be collecting all
of those resources, centralizingthem, and then disseminating
them because truly all realworkforce development is
hyper-local.
So if we have practices thatare working in one region, we
(09:28):
can then lift those, adapt them,and have them work in other
regions.
So a lot of the work of theregional nodes is gonna be doing
that on the ground outreachwhile the semi-foundation
continues our national efforts.
Okay, so you get nationalfunding.
Francoise von Trapp (09:42):
Are you having any of the state, for
instance, the New York Createsor the Arizona Commerce
Authority, or you know, are theyall part of this?
I'm just trying to visualizeit.
Shari Liss (09:52):
It depends on the regional nodes that are selected
as who's going to be directlyinvolved in that work, but the
beneficiaries are nationwide,obviously.
Right.
And so I think that networkthat we create through this work
will touch all the states.
That's the goal, of course, ofthis work.
And everybody will feed intothe system in one way or
another, or at least benefitfrom the system.
But in terms of regional nodes,I believe in the first round
(10:14):
we're s we're able to fund fourregional nodes.
That's the current thinking.
You know, that's a startingpoint, right?
But the hope is that everybodyacross the nation will benefit
from that.
But you know, it depends onwhich regional nodes are
selected by the selectioncommittee, um, determining who's
going to then get it.
Francoise von Trapp (10:30):
So this is going out nationwide.
So what regions are youanticipating?
I mean, is it is it by state?
Is it by like, oh, it's theheartland, it's the northeast,
it's multi-state is what we'relooking for.
Michelle Williams (10:43):
Because ultimately we're looking at
potentially eight nodesaltogether.
So it will be, you know, thesethis work has to cross state
lines.
Um and ideally within thosenetworks, yeah, the the economic
development corporations aregoing to be a huge part of that.
So we hope.
I mean, they'd be they're anexcellent partner.
They do so much around jobcreation and workforce
development.
They're they're the kind ofpartners that um can really
(11:06):
anchor some of this work.
Shari Liss (11:07):
They were definitely identified in the letters of
interest across the board asbeing partners in each of the
regional node applications.
Francoise von Trapp (11:13):
Okay, and how about like semi-members
companies, how can they beinvolved?
Shari Liss (11:18):
Also part of the regional node involvement in
terms of supporting mappingcompetencies and supporting
identifying the needs in termsof jobs, like where they're
having gaps or struggles interms of hiring folks.
So the idea is that theregional node would be working
with their local partners toidentify where are the needs,
where are the challenges, whatkinds of programs do we need to
build in order to be successfulin this industry?
(11:40):
How can we help you as acompany find the talent that you
need?
So the company voice is goingto be critical in making this
all come together.
Francoise von Trapp (11:49):
And is there a financial investment by
the companies to participate inthis?
Shari Liss (11:53):
No, not a not a requirement.
Not a requirement.
I imagine, though, that if acertain state were to receive
funding or a certain collectionof states were to become a
regional node, those companiesand those states, if they
receive CHIPS funding, if theyhave workforce dollars, would
probably contribute to theeffort.
I imagine that will happen.
Michelle Williams (12:12):
That's always the ideal state.
I think one of the beautifulthings about this particular RFP
and and work is that we're not,we do not require a match,
which is so important for someof the more, you know, um ground
level efforts.
But braided funding is alwaysencouraged.
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
(12:34):
do these regions bring to bearthat 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 virtuallyany organization that touches
workforce development.
Shari Liss (12:56):
Beautiful.
Francoise von Trapp (12:57):
Beautifully said.
So, in the few minutes we haveleft, um, we did want to say a
little bit about somethingthat's happening here in Arizona
that's called the Semi-Quest.
Um, can you talk about whatthat experience is?
Michelle Williams (13:10):
Sure.
So Semi-Quest is a pop-up STEMexperience that makes
microelectronics engaging andaccessible.
Its whole purpose is to sparkearly interest and to feed into
the larger talent pipeline.
Um, it's at the Arizona ScienceCenter, and the exhibit is open
through the first week ofJanuary in 2026.
Francoise von Trapp (13:29):
And is this something that SEMI is like
piloting here in Arizona andhoping to offer at other science
centers around the country?
Michelle Williams (13:37):
That would be amazing.
We've had such a tremendousoutpouring of support for it.
It is uh such an extraordinaryexperience over there.
And uh, you know, yes, the ideaof doing this at other science
centers, but also there's nowinterest of doing it at other
semicons because it is such anincredible add-on.
Francoise von Trapp (13:53):
Oh, that's really cool.
Well, I'm looking forward togoing to see that uh tomorrow.
So if you're here in Arizona,go and check it out.
I'm gonna say in advance thatit's super cool.
Um where can people go to learnmore about NNME?
nnme.org.
Yep, it's right there.
It's right there.
Thank you, ladies, so much.
(14:14):
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 theshow 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 eventfeatured three days of
sustainability sessions focusedin four key areas: EHS or
Environmental Health and Safety,ESG, which is environmental
social governance, and thesemi-climate consortium and the
energy collaborative.
(14:52):
And so here to provide a recapand an update on what's
happening in these initiativesare 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 yourbackground and your roles at
SEMI?
Saifi?
Saifi Usmani (15:10):
Hi, my name is Saifi Usmani.
I am the vice president ofglobal industry sustainability
programs at SEMI.
Um, before I came to SEMI, Iwas with EMD Electronics.
I would a head of a businessand one of the electronics
businesses.
And uh I come from a very proudtradition 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 thesustainability 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 forSEMI Control Climate Consortium.
I have been with SCC for twoyears, and currently I am
leading all of our five workinggroups: scope one, scope two,
scope three, emissions, emissionreporting protocol, and
baseline ambition setting androadmapping.
Francoise von Trapp (15:59):
So I want to dive in and talk a little bit
about how the sustainabilityinitiative has matured and maybe
changed over the years.
Palin?
Peilun Sun (16:09):
Absolutely.
So I'm we're speaking from thelens of SCC.
So I want to focus on twopoints.
Number one is SEC has seengrowth in membership
significantly over the pastthree years.
We started back in 2022 and weinitiated SEC during COP27.
(16:32):
Back then we started with 65 uhfounding members, and as of
today, we have more than 100members.
So, you know, everybody'swanting to contribute to
sustainability, seeingsustainability as a very um
challenging issue that requirescollaboration, innovation, or
connection to uh address.
(16:52):
And the second point I wantedto emphasize is when SEC first
started, we were trying to hearfrom everybody, trying to
understand where the industry isat in terms of its emission uh
baseline.
But uh I think after threeyears of doing a lot of the
research work, a lot ofunderstandings of the industry,
(17:13):
now we're taking a step forwardto understand what what are the
initiatives, what are theprojects that really can move
the needle.
And we want to prioritize andput all of our focuses and
energies on making an impact forthose 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 yearsold.
With any program, it startswith a lot of energy and a lot
of passion.
And so it started small.
The team actually was able togrow and attract a lot of
interest from partners.
And so ultimately from justfounding three years ago, we've
(17:54):
grown to over 100 members rightnow, and you should see the
passion.
We just finished uh three daysof sustainability talks and
presentations, and we just cameback from a whole day of
pavilion presentations.
There were more than 100members from all over the world
and all over the countrylistening to us and showing
interest and asking us for morefeedback and more information
(18:16):
outside of the hundred membersthat we have already included.
So we have seen this grow fromalmost 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 USgovernment's pull away from
supporting sustainabilityinitiatives.
So I'm so happy to see thatSEMI is continuing with that.
Um, how has the program beenimpacted by the current
administration's approach tosustainability?
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-termvisions 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 uhchange in direction, maybe in
change in uh in the publicadmission of some of their
(19:08):
programs, but I've not changedseen any change in direction.
Francoise von Trapp (19:11):
That is so good to hear.
I feel like um, you know, therewas the potential for,
especially in the US companies,if it's not a requirement for
them anymore, or it's evendiscouraged to support it, that
it could impact the program.
But it sounds like companiesare being good global citizens
and sort of taking things intotheir own hands.
(19:32):
Can you give maybe someexamples of that where you're
seeing that companies that arereally continuing to pursue any
specific companies standout thatyou can mention?
Saifi Usmani (19:41):
Or I will not call out a name, but I was doing
a panel discussion yesterdayand we were talking about this
at the panel discussion with umwith a couple of participants,
and the generic answer that Ireceived 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 madeon a business value.
So ultimately, uh, when thecase is presented, there is
changes in the value because ofuh changing uh input costs or
changing uh demands.
But at the end of the day, whenthey 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 havedifferent targets.
Peilun Sun (20:26):
That is correct.
Francoise von Trapp (20:27):
Right.
So has the sustainabilityconsortium settled in on any
specific targets that they'rehoping their members pursue?
Peilun Sun (20:35):
Exactly.
I think that's a greatquestion.
SEFI have actually put togethera really great chart, and I've
heard it being referenced somany times during the past three
days of the uh conference.
I can briefly cover it, but I'muh I'm sure Safi can speak more
to it.
But basically, for our members,our members cover different
parts of the value chain.
(20:57):
Some of them are materialsuppliers, equipment suppliers,
some of them are device makers,and some of them are end users.
So typically what we see is endusers, they have a more
aggressive uh timeline to reachnet zero, which is typically
2030.
And then the further we move upthe value chain, you know, the
the further back the year it isfor achieving net zero.
(21:20):
So what SEC is trying to do iswe wanted to leverage our
consortium as a vehicle to bringthat gap closer, right?
So what we have been doing iswe have been trying to set up an
SEC ambition where we arealigning with everybody in the
industry on a specific targetthat we can all work towards.
(21:43):
So it may not be uh 2030, butthe the goal is to move the
industry faster than where uhwhat we're already heading to.
Francoise von Trapp (21:53):
Are the end users setting requirements for
their suppliers as they wouldbe, I think, wouldn't that be
their scope three?
Is the suppliers?
So there's kind of this trickleeffect where if they require
it, it's going to push theirsuppliers to want to achieve
those goals as well.
And so another point ofcollaboration, right?
Saifi Usmani (22:15):
That's correct.
So maybe taking up from whatPelon said, there is a 20-year
gap between what thehyperscalers, which is
ultimately the people who makethe devices ready for us, right?
And then the manufacturers, thechip manufacturers, have
committed to roughly 2050.
So there is a 20-year gapbetween what we need to do to
(22:36):
meet net zero 1.5 degreesCelsius pathway, and where some
of the best, most well-resourcedchip 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 collectivepower of all of us to innovate
and collaborate and see if wecan move this any faster?
(22:58):
And that's where semi comes in.
And we are trying to bring thethe entire value chain together
under this umbrella,semiconductor climate
consortium, and then alsothrough the energy collaborative
to not only drive programs thatwe think will bring will move
the needle, but then also workon advocacy with uh with
(23:24):
governments in different regionsto have low carbon energy,
which is renewable energy,different forms of energy that
can remove carbon from theatmosphere.
So we have to b do both.
We have to have adoption of thebest practices that is
available today.
But we also have to innovateand and bring out new ways to
(23:46):
reduce emissions and also uselow carbon and electricity in
the future.
Combining those two, we canactually bridge that gap, the
20-year gap, to something lessthan 20 years.
Francoise von Trapp (23:58):
So, how is the energy collaborative
different than the climateconsortium?
Saifi Usmani (24:03):
So the energy collaborative is really designed
around policy.
So driving policy withgovernments to enable
accessible, affordable renewableenergy for our members.
The semiconductor climateconsortium 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 userenewable energy, figure out
how to reduce emissions, how tomeasure them more on the user
end, and the energycollaborative 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 energydrain caused by AI and data
centers and how that's going toincrease exponentially.
And, you know, facing there'snot enough energy to support
that, that companies were evenpushing out their net zero goals
(25:05):
because bringing up the AIseemed more important than
reaching the energy goals.
Um, so how is this impactingthat 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 toa solution.
So we are seeing more action ontrying to prioritize uh energy
availability because either way,to make energy available at
such a fast pace, we have to addcapacity.
(25:39):
And if we're going to addcapacity, why not add renewable
energy capacity?
And so there is a lot ofactivity that we are having
mostly in Asia Pacific at thispoint in time, because that's
where the biggest opportunity isto add more capacity.
They are further behind.
The much market is not mature.
So that is where we are tryingto add more capacity.
(25:59):
Working with public and privatepartnership, we are bringing in
the semi-collective voice tothe governments.
We are bringing in whitepapers, we are bringing in
packages, sitting down in closedroad conferences with
governments and trying to tellthem what is needed, showing
them the roadmap, creating ademand signal.
Francoise von Trapp (26:19):
I had an interesting conversation last
week at the IMAP Symposium withum Dr.
Subu Ayer, who is working onchip lit technologies at UCLA.
And we actually have aconversation about that.
And it reminds me he was kindof bringing up not so much
trying to solve the energyproblem from the perspective of
providing more energy, butreducing the need for energy and
(26:41):
power of the chips themselvesso that we could address it from
that end because we're notgoing to be able to control
people's use of their devicesand their use of AI.
We can't say, oh, you know,it's frivolous to go and Google
what is Taylor Swift wearingtoday, and that he's he used
that as an example.
It's like six watts of powerjust to pose that query.
(27:03):
And he's so he said it's moreimportant to really reduce the
need for power from our chips.
So from Sami's perspective, Imean, you're addressing it from
the energy side of things andthe um, you know, renewable and
power, but do you consider fromthe chip development side?
Saifi Usmani (27:21):
Yeah, so we can add that too.
So actually several differentways, right?
So no matter what, right, wehave to reduce emissions.
We have to have renewableenergy available so that we, you
know, the the fossil fuelenergy is is not good for the
environment.
But at the end of the other endof the, we have to reuse,
right?
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
(27:42):
That applies to energy as well.
How do you reduce the use ofenergy?
And so for that, uh, there isinnovations going on in design,
chip design.
We just sponsored S3 startupsfor semiconductors, sorry, S3
session itself.
Yeah, yeah.
There were 150 participants anduh they they worked on three
areas.
(28:02):
One of them is how to reduceenergy use for data centers, how
to leverage NAI to improvedesign of uh smart chips, and
how do we bring about newtechnologies 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 thisfrom the SEC's perspective is
you know, we are scope twoworking group is addressing the
problem of energy.
Uh, and then recently we havebeen splitting up the group into
two tracks.
One is focusing on renewableenergy procurement.
(28:44):
That's echoing what um Stefijust mentioned, but another
important track is energyefficiency.
So basically you were focusingon how do we uh run fabs more
efficiently, so you know theenergy that it takes to produce
those fabs is actually lower.
So even though the demand wentup, the overall energy will stay
(29:04):
the same or even lower for thepro uh the production or
operation process.
Francoise von Trapp (29:09):
Okay.
So we kind of have to wrapthings up here.
Do you have any final thoughtsthat you would like to add that
you want people to take awayfrom this?
Saifi Usmani (29:17):
I think the most important thing that we need to
do is we need to beconscientious about energy use
in our lives.
So to your point, right?
When we put a query throughChatGPT, we have to realize that
it uses a lot of power.
And so um we could be justbetter stewards of the
(29:38):
environment ourselves, not justrely on some expert somewhere
out in an office or a factory todo that.
We as everyday citizens havealso the opportunity to reduce
the use of electricity, reduceum 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 semiconductorindustry, more importantly,
sustainability problem is aglobal problem.
Even though Semicon West isbeing hosted here in the United
States, we're bringing in uhmembers from APAC region, from
(30:17):
EU region, they all come in withdifferent 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 thatwe need to solve this together,
uh, given whatever turbulencethat 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 yourtime today.
Thanks for joining me.
Where can people go to learnmore?
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 ofSemicon West as we continue our
coverage with conversations fromthe show floor.
We'll be talking with 3DInsights members to get their
take on the week's activities.
It's gonna be a good one.
There's lots more to come, sotune in next time to the 3D
(31:15):
Insights podcast.
The 3D Insights podcast is aproduction of 3D Insights LLC.
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