UF President Ben Sasse to announce university's new plans in Jacksonville

[jaxlongtimer]

Thanks for sharing Jax! Had no idea. Still somewhat curious to me as to why. They don't manufacture any of their own chips, which is where Jacksonville has the ability to enter the game. Nvidia isn't unique in that way, but nonetheless, removes the most likely role that Jax could play with the semi industry.

If NVIDIA wanted to start manufacturing its own chips, and not just design and distribute them, this would, perhaps, be an opportune time for them to build a plant in the U.S.  Both due to their own booming business and to get support from the Feds.

To add, given the 4x rise in their stock price to a $2.3 trillion company, they would easily have the capital to spend billions (+ anything the Feds might kick in) for a U.S. plant.  Whether they want to do that, and if so, if they would put it in Northeast Florida, is a whole other question  .

[Jax_Developer]

Thanks for sharing Jax! Had no idea. Still somewhat curious to me as to why. They don't manufacture any of their own chips, which is where Jacksonville has the ability to enter the game. Nvidia isn't unique in that way, but nonetheless, removes the most likely role that Jax could play with the semi industry.

If NVIDIA wanted to start manufacturing its own chips, and not just design and distribute them, this would, perhaps, be an opportune time for them to build a plant in the U.S.  Both due to their own booming business and to get support from the Feds.

To add, given the 4x rise in their stock price to a $2.3 trillion company, they would easily have the capital to spend billions (+ anything the Feds might kick in) for a U.S. plant.  Whether they want to do that, and if so, if they would put it in Northeast Florida, is a whole other question  .

Never say never, but the task is surely monumental! TSMC has made it their mission to out compete any semi producer on nano manufacturing. Nvidia needs the very best for their packaging! Hard to deviate from. The educational background for these processes is extremely intense. There's no one university that will address that skill gap. The greater silicon valley couldn't do it. The generation gap is so much smaller than like 10 years ago. There will likely be a new technology that comes around (changing the manufacturing process entirely) before we catch up meaningfully.

That's why I go back to the business presence. Is Nvidia opening an office here as well? It just seems out of place without the business community to support it. I obviously want it to happen nonetheless

[simms3]

The CHIPS Act that was to bring and incentivize all these plants was loaded with major DEI requirements and that is one big thing, if not THE thing stalling these plants.  Look it up.

That's called "strings attached" and "poison pill".

https://thehill.com/opinion/4517470-dei-killed-the-chips-act/

I suppose the large crowd on here who thinks DeSantis has killed higher education simply because he doesn't want woke ideology taking over taxpayer funded higher education will think the above is hogwash and super biased and full of crap, but again it just signifies the insane rift between people on my side of this issue and people on the other side of this issue.

It's a war of information and between ideologies.  I think the evidence backing my side and the above thoughts on the CHIPs Act and its failures speak for themselves.  We can all see what's going on with our own eyes, as we all have our own personal anecdotes down at the personal level that only filters up to the macro level, and we can all see that.

Off topic, I just saw this chain and decided to chime in because I'm freaking tired of seeing the collapse of western civilization occur all around us, a collapse issued with funding from our own hard earned and paid tax money.  It's very aggravating.  We can't simply have merit anymore and everything must be dumbed down.  Instead of lifting people up and helping them achieve, which does involve personal accountability, we are penalizing performance and hard working people, to "equalize" people in a downward fashion rather than an upward.  It's the truth, and that's why our CHIPs Act is a failure.

[marcuscnelson]

I'm not sure what… all of that had to do with UF and the state's proposal, but okay, I'll engage with this in good faith.

I would first note that the CHIPS and Science Act was passed by a bipartisan majority of both the House and Senate, including the now-President of UF Ben Sasse. I don't think Mitch McConnell, Roy Blunt, and Roger Wicker are agents of some woke agenda.

This op-ed makes a lot of assertions that somehow every roadblock encountered by a chipmaker while developing an American supply chain is the result of some kind of diversity mandate, but doesn't really provide any evidence to support that. A big part of what they do have evidence for in this op-ed is requirements imposed by Buy America mandates, which don't have much of anything to do with diversity and were similarly imposed by the Trump Administration (the U2C is a glaring local example of these federally-imposed limitations).

Now, it does appear that chipmakers are considering a range of options that aren't exclusively American, and I actually agree that we should probably waive some of the NEPA limits for things like microchip fabs and the clean energy infrastructure needed to power them so that these important and valuable projects can happen faster. But it doesn't make much sense to cast essentially all of the blame for setbacks with a law that's now eighteen months old on some kind of diversity boogeyman. There's not evidence presented in this op-ed or elsewhere to support that claim.

But let's suppose you're right. If the federal incentives are so bogged down by DEI mandates alone that chipmakers would rather go anywhere else, then Governor DeSantis should be able to offer a pretty competitive alternative with no federal strings attached, right? South Carolina, Tennessee, Kansas, and Texas all managed to do it for automobile and plane manufacturing, and last I heard Florida has about $13 billion in state reserves. Call up TSMC or Intel or Samsung or NVIDIA and offer 3 or 4 billion in state incentives for a new fab in Jacksonville, no NEPA, no DEI, import whoever they want to build and work at it. If you're correct that this is all ideological, they'll take that deal, right? Could even put it at the old power plant by the port, plenty of space there and access to cooling water.

But I'd also note that this op-ed was posted on March 7th. Intel announced this week that they're pretty happy with the $8.5 billion in grants, $11 billion in loans and $25 billion in tax credits the CHIPS Act is now awarding them for facilities in Ohio, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon. This doesn't strike me as a company so fed up with diversity that they're "quietly giving up on America" as the op-ed declares.

Anyway, hopefully the state only needs another $20-25 million from the city to get the UF campus built, and not too much more for this Semiconductor Institute. I remember while at UF hearing about the big investments being made in AI since the NVIDIA cofounder went there, so it'd be nice to see some of that growth come to Jax.

[simms3]

^^^^One definite thing I will agree with you on is that DeSantis/Florida shouldn't have a problem attracting big operations like Texas has, except Florida historically absolutely fails and sucks wind on incentives.  Florida has never been able to really compete with Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, etc on attracting big relocations or big operations.  And it's a shame.

Similarly, I wish our own city/Chamber focus would be on piling up big incentives to lure a relocation of the next 2 Fidelities, and bring them downtown, rather than piecemeal small incentives here and there for warehouse jobs and relatively large incentives for individual apartment projects.  We are constantly going after the end product (eg downtown apartments) without trying to attract the root cause that can naturally get us there (a big downtown high paying jobs creator/dominant industry).

[Jax_Developer]

The biggest hurdle to Florida is our perception as being a retirement state. Jacksonville is the only big city in Florida with a legit history in various industries. Most of the state lacks skilled labor for jobs like tech & finance relative to those states you named. For whatever reason, that's just how it is. Miami seems to be changing that as we know. Tampa/St. Pete has a solid banking base. Jacksonville just doesn't have the skilled labor influx like those two other regions.

UF has the ability to change that with them being a much more prestigious university now than 20 or 30 years ago... when today's industry leaders were being educated. You are just not going to attract Fortune 500 jobs without the educational system, or labor influx, to support it  (Also why there's a push for the greater UF system to grow in size & prestige).

The CHIP's act will be modified.. after all it's intended to be legislation that will last 10+ years. What DeSantis/Florida would do if they were smart, is to create defined programs that compound the CHIP's act. You just aren't going to attract Fortune 500 tech companies without DEI being involved. It's ultimately a skilled labor issue, and any industry expert would agree. It will take a few "college generations" to make a meaningful difference. There's also something like $200B ($50B in PHX I looked up) in chip projects over the next 10 years... to think there's a labor shortage in general, isn't a crazy statement relative to other professions.

So... Nvidia Satellite Office in DT next to a UF Semi Grad School makes a lot of sense to me if they are meaningfully involved in the school's success. That would have a greater chance of starting any domino effect than any existing corporation in our market.

[Tacachale]

I suppose the large crowd on here who thinks DeSantis has killed higher education simply because he doesn't want woke ideology taking over taxpayer funded higher education will think the above is hogwash and super biased and full of crap, but again it just signifies the insane rift between people on my side of this issue and people on the other side of this issue.

Yes.

I'm not sure what… all of that had to do with UF and the state's proposal, but okay, I'll engage with this in good faith.

It doesn't. Just another insertion of identity politics into the discussion.

I would first note that the CHIPS and Science Act was passed by a bipartisan majority of both the House and Senate, including the now-President of UF Ben Sasse. I don't think Mitch McConnell, Roy Blunt, and Roger Wicker are agents of some woke agenda.

This op-ed makes a lot of assertions that somehow every roadblock encountered by a chipmaker while developing an American supply chain is the result of some kind of diversity mandate, but doesn't really provide any evidence to support that. A big part of what they do have evidence for in this op-ed is requirements imposed by Buy America mandates, which don't have much of anything to do with diversity and were similarly imposed by the Trump Administration (the U2C is a glaring local example of these federally-imposed limitations).

Yeah, I haven't seen any critiques of the CHIPS act, let alone the UF push, based on anti-diversity hysteria outside of right wing op eds (like this one). And that's only been brought up in like the last 2 weeks. Even the opposition to the bill from the right wingers at the time including Kevin McCarthy didn't dwell on anti-diversity language; it was about this being a gift to semiconductor companies and too much spending.

And of course the biggest critics of the bill were the Chinese government and its paid lobbyists, which indicates we're doing something right.

Now, it does appear that chipmakers are considering a range of options that aren't exclusively American, and I actually agree that we should probably waive some of the NEPA limits for things like microchip fabs and the clean energy infrastructure needed to power them so that these important and valuable projects can happen faster. But it doesn't make much sense to cast essentially all of the blame for setbacks with a law that's now eighteen months old on some kind of diversity boogeyman. There's not evidence presented in this op-ed or elsewhere to support that claim.

But let's suppose you're right. If the federal incentives are so bogged down by DEI mandates alone that chipmakers would rather go anywhere else, then Governor DeSantis should be able to offer a pretty competitive alternative with no federal strings attached, right? South Carolina, Tennessee, Kansas, and Texas all managed to do it for automobile and plane manufacturing, and last I heard Florida has about $13 billion in state reserves. Call up TSMC or Intel or Samsung or NVIDIA and offer 3 or 4 billion in state incentives for a new fab in Jacksonville, no NEPA, no DEI, import whoever they want to build and work at it. If you're correct that this is all ideological, they'll take that deal, right? Could even put it at the old power plant by the port, plenty of space there and access to cooling water.

But I'd also note that this op-ed was posted on March 7th. Intel announced this week that they're pretty happy with the $8.5 billion in grants, $11 billion in loans and $25 billion in tax credits the CHIPS Act is now awarding them for facilities in Ohio, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon. This doesn't strike me as a company so fed up with diversity that they're "quietly giving up on America" as the op-ed declares.

Anyway, hopefully the state only needs another $20-25 million from the city to get the UF campus built, and not too much more for this Semiconductor Institute. I remember while at UF hearing about the big investments being made in AI since the NVIDIA cofounder went there, so it'd be nice to see some of that growth come to Jax.

100%. It's good for Florida that UF is making a play for this. We'll see what kind of investment that takes and if the deal is worth it.

[jaxlongtimer]

The biggest hurdle to Florida is our perception as being a retirement state....

....UF has the ability to change that with them being a much more prestigious university now than 20 or 30 years ago... when today's industry leaders were being educated. You are just not going to attract Fortune 500 jobs without the educational system, or labor influx, to support it  (Also why there's a push for the greater UF system to grow in size & prestige).

....The CHIP's act will be modified.. after all it's intended to be legislation that will last 10+ years. What DeSantis/Florida would do if they were smart, is to create defined programs that compound the CHIP's act. You just aren't going to attract Fortune 500 tech companies without DEI being involved. It's ultimately a skilled labor issue, and any industry expert would agree. It will take a few "college generations" to make a meaningful difference. There's also something like $200B ($50B in PHX I looked up) in chip projects over the next 10 years... to think there's a labor shortage in general, isn't a crazy statement relative to other professions....

Despite Simms viewpoints, DEI and immigrants are critical to attracting big tech for the reasons JD cites.  Aside from pushing back on unfounded and unjust phobias and discrimination, it is all about the labor force.  The CEO of NVIDIA is a Taiwanese immigrant* and his first cousin is, interestingly, the CEO of AMD... that's the #1 and #2 chip design companies in the world. 

Until DeSantis is out of office, no big tech company is likely to seriously invest in Florida.  Further, UF is hampered for the same reason... the national publicity it got for firing its DEI staff is an example of the image that doesn't help UF or Florida.  Add, the "punishment" DeSantis put on Disney for speaking up for DEI issues and what DEI/immigrant oriented company would want to be here? 

*From Wikipedia re: NVIDIA co-founder/CEO:  Jen-Hsun Huang was born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1963. His family moved to Thailand when he was five years old; when he was nine, he and his brother were sent to the United States to live with an uncle in Tacoma, Washington. When he was ten years old, he lived in the boys dormitory with his brother at Oneida Baptist Institute while attending Oneida Elementary school in Oneida, Kentucky.[2] Several years later their parents also moved to the United States and settled in Oregon,[2] where he graduated from Aloha High School just outside Portland.[5] He skipped two years and graduated at sixteen.[2]

[jaxlongtimer]

NVIDIA doesn't appear to be stopping at just chip design.  It is expanding into AI applications, including biotech.  This is another possible connection to Jax given UF Health, Mayo and MD Anderson, among others.  They also have a partnership with Johnson & Johnson, which is big here with its vision division.

Nvidia’s AI ambitions in medicine and health care are becoming clear

Last week, Nvidia announced deals with Johnson & Johnson for use of generative AI in surgery, and with GE Healthcare to improve medical imaging. The health care developments at its 2024 GTC AI conference, — which also included the launch of roughly two dozen new AI-powered, healthcare-focused tools — demonstrate just how important medicine is to Nvidia’s non-tech sector revenue opportunities in the future.

“The reason why Nvidia is so popular today is because it basically provided the plumbing and the technology for something that you could not do simply before or if you had to do something like this you would need probably several times more time, money and cost,” said Raj Joshi, a technology analyst and senior vice president at Moody’s Ratings. “Health care, whether it’s biotechnology, chemicals, or drug discovery is a very powerful area.”...

....The health care focus from Nvidia at its conference was a doubling down on an ambition it’s had for a long time. During an earnings call with investors in February, Nvidia mentioned several ways its technology was being adapted for the medical field. ....

....“In healthcare, digital biology and generative AI are helping to reinvent drug discovery, surgery, medical imaging and wearable devices,” said Colette Kress, Nvidia chief financial officer. “We have built deep domain expertise in healthcare over the past decade, creating the NVIDIA Clara healthcare platform and NVIDIA BioNeMo, a generative AI service to develop, customize and deploy AI foundation models for computer-aided drug discovery.”....

....“It’s one thing to design semiconductors and computing platforms for others to do something. But it’s another thing altogether when you can build full-fledged packages of technology that you can sell to a customer,” Joshi said. “Let’s say if you are a biotech firm, you take the full technology from Nvidia, and you just start working on it as opposed to figuring out ‘how do I use this information technology?’”...

....The health-care space is an example of how far a company that was designing gaming graphics cards a decade ago has come. “You have to give credit to them that Jensen had the foresight way back in 2012 when he saw some people actually use his graphics card at Stanford University to solve some types of mathematical problem,” Joshi said. “He said, ‘You know what, this can actually be used to do what is called general computing, you know, the things that we all do everyday on a normal basis.’”.....

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/24/nvidias-ai-ambitions-in-medicine-and-health-care-are-becoming-clear.html

[simms3]

dd

[Tacachale]

No one complains louder about diversity initiatives than folks who know they could never compete if the playing field was level for everyone. At any rate, let’s get this thread back on topic. I think we’ve all had enough of these tangents.

[Fallen Buckeye]

Despite Simms viewpoints, DEI and immigrants are critical to attracting big tech for the reasons JD cites.  Aside from pushing back on unfounded and unjust phobias and discrimination, it is all about the labor force.  The CEO of NVIDIA is a Taiwanese immigrant* and his first cousin is, interestingly, the CEO of AMD... that's the #1 and #2 chip design companies in the world. 

Until DeSantis is out of office, no big tech company is likely to seriously invest in Florida.  Further, UF is hampered for the same reason... the national publicity it got for firing its DEI staff is an example of the image that doesn't help UF or Florida.  Add, the "punishment" DeSantis put on Disney for speaking up for DEI issues and what DEI/immigrant oriented company would want to be here? 

I haven't seen convincing evidence that DEI is a critical component of attracting big tech. UF was a well regarded school before DEI came into fashion, and it's going to continue to be despite these programs getting the boot. This brouhaha is about media getting eyeballs and politicians grandstanding. The reality is that the companies will go where they can make the most money and where they have access to the means to run their plants.

Ohio threw billions at Intel to build their plant, and they have a huge university. Phoenix basically had the same situation when Intel came to town. Growing the education component here is a great step, but the ultimate decision to move any production here will be about incentives not DEI. Wave enough money in the face of prospective professors and offer a good QOL, and we won't have any trouble getting the education component.

Personally, I have a lot to gain from DEI as a minority son of an immigrant, but I'm not a proponent. I'm all for equal opportunity, but outcomes should be based on merit instead of a quota.

[Tacachale]

Despite Simms viewpoints, DEI and immigrants are critical to attracting big tech for the reasons JD cites.  Aside from pushing back on unfounded and unjust phobias and discrimination, it is all about the labor force.  The CEO of NVIDIA is a Taiwanese immigrant* and his first cousin is, interestingly, the CEO of AMD... that's the #1 and #2 chip design companies in the world. 

Until DeSantis is out of office, no big tech company is likely to seriously invest in Florida.  Further, UF is hampered for the same reason... the national publicity it got for firing its DEI staff is an example of the image that doesn't help UF or Florida.  Add, the "punishment" DeSantis put on Disney for speaking up for DEI issues and what DEI/immigrant oriented company would want to be here? 

I haven't seen convincing evidence that DEI is a critical component of attracting big tech. UF was a well regarded school before DEI came into fashion, and it's going to continue to be despite these programs getting the boot. This brouhaha is about media getting eyeballs and politicians grandstanding. The reality is that the companies will go where they can make the most money and where they have access to the means to run their plants.

Ohio threw billions at Intel to build their plant, and they have a huge university. Phoenix basically had the same situation when Intel came to town. Growing the education component here is a great step, but the ultimate decision to move any production here will be about incentives not DEI. Wave enough money in the face of prospective professors and offer a good QOL, and we won't have any trouble getting the education component.

Personally, I have a lot to gain from DEI as a minority son of an immigrant, but I'm not a proponent. I'm all for equal opportunity, but outcomes should be based on merit instead of a quota.

Florida schools didn’t use quotas. Their diversity initiatives were focused on providing support and services to students of diverse backgrounds to help them succeed in their studies.

[jaxlongtimer]

Despite Simms viewpoints, DEI and immigrants are critical to attracting big tech for the reasons JD cites.  Aside from pushing back on unfounded and unjust phobias and discrimination, it is all about the labor force.  The CEO of NVIDIA is a Taiwanese immigrant* and his first cousin is, interestingly, the CEO of AMD... that's the #1 and #2 chip design companies in the world. 

Until DeSantis is out of office, no big tech company is likely to seriously invest in Florida.  Further, UF is hampered for the same reason... the national publicity it got for firing its DEI staff is an example of the image that doesn't help UF or Florida.  Add, the "punishment" DeSantis put on Disney for speaking up for DEI issues and what DEI/immigrant oriented company would want to be here? 

I haven't seen convincing evidence that DEI is a critical component of attracting big tech. UF was a well regarded school before DEI came into fashion, and it's going to continue to be despite these programs getting the boot. This brouhaha is about media getting eyeballs and politicians grandstanding. The reality is that the companies will go where they can make the most money and where they have access to the means to run their plants.

Ohio threw billions at Intel to build their plant, and they have a huge university. Phoenix basically had the same situation when Intel came to town. Growing the education component here is a great step, but the ultimate decision to move any production here will be about incentives not DEI. Wave enough money in the face of prospective professors and offer a good QOL, and we won't have any trouble getting the education component.

Personally, I have a lot to gain from DEI as a minority son of an immigrant, but I'm not a proponent. I'm all for equal opportunity, but outcomes should be based on merit instead of a quota.

It really doesn't matter what we think of DEI.  What matters is what the work force that companies are trying to recruit thinks of places to work that work against DEI. The issue is that when DEI is attacked, people who are minorities. LGBTQ or immigrants often take it that their kind isn't welcomed in those communities.  It is as much about the optics as it is the reality.  And, no amount of incentives can make up for the inability to build a properly skilled workforce.*

No different than when the GOP holds up a decades old rape case by an immigrant as somehow representative of millions of immigrants.  When, statistics show that U.S. citizens commit crimes at far higher rates than immigrants.  The GOP is playing to optics, not reality.  Turnabout is fair play.

*In a lot of states, incentives are really a reduction or giveback of taxes that are higher than Florida so the incentives may not really be that much more than coming to Florida, a lower tax sate.  Smart companies look at the total package (e.g. land, taxes, labor, utilities, logistics, natural disasters, insurance, suppliers/customers, quality of life, educational options, etc.), not just some incentives that are mostly one-time and may be a relative fraction of the cost, long term, of operating in an area.  By example, if they have to pay higher ongoing rates to attract labor, that could quickly wipe out the value of incentives.

[Jax_Developer]

It appears tomorrow there will be a vote per the Business Journal. Not sure if this is the final vote, but a vote nonetheless!