While AI companies have proposed slowing down model development due to concerns about the technology's rapid and unsettling advancement, another issue—this one on the hardware side of the industry—may be forcing them to decelerate.

Human capital is central to the world's ability to produce enough chips to power artificial intelligence, yet a new report by McKinsey and the SEMI Foundation projects that the U.S. will face a shortage of up to 157,000 semiconductor workers by 2030"I am concerned," said Jon Taylor, Executive Vice President of Samsung's semiconductor division, in an interview with CNBC. "We believe there is an insufficient pipeline of technical talent."

Data from McKinsey

Data from McKinsey & Company shows that only 3% of U.S. engineering graduates enter the semiconductor industry each year, while 73% of chip companies report facing significant difficulties in recruiting engineering talent.

The U.S. is undergoing its fastest-ever expansion of chip manufacturing; with TSMC and Intel racing to produce enough memory and logic processors to power artificial intelligence, engineers and skilled technicians have become crucial. New chip manufacturing plants—or "fabs"—in Arizona are now churning out advanced logic chips.

Samsung is set to become the next chipmaker to produce advanced logic chips in the U.S. The South Korean company will bring the first of two new fabs in Taylor, Texas, online later this year. This is part of a $35 billion investment project in the state, with the two new fabs expected to create approximately 3,500 jobs.

"We are hiring engineers, technicians, and supply chain personnel," Taylor said. "Everyone wants the same thing, and with everything coming online now, time is of the essence."

Although the U.S. is the birthplace of semiconductors and a global leader in chip design, nearly all advanced chips have been manufactured in Asia for decades. Asia boasts the strongest talent pool, which is why Idaho-based Micron Technology chose to manufacture its chips there.

The company has conducted rapid recruitment drives at South Korean technical universities, interviewing students and offering them permanent positions at its Asian plants within a single day.

This may be welcome news for U.S. college students. The rise of artificial intelligence has led to a decline in software engineering roles and increased uncertainty in the job market. Universities such as Purdue and Arizona State are investing millions of dollars to launch programs designed to prepare American students for careers in the chip industry.

"We are already Intel's largest source of university graduates globally, so we are now striving to become TSMC's largest source as well," Arizona State University President Michael Crow told CNBC.

However, compensation for chip industry jobs in the U.S. is often far lower than in countries like South Korea, where semiconductor workers are highly sought-after in the marriage market. These jobs are typically grueling, often requiring 12-hour workdays. However, when thousands of workers at Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix threatened to strike, bonuses surged to over $500,000.

In contrast, according to the SEMI Foundation, the annual salary for U.S. engineers typically ranges from $127,000 to $187,000, while senior roles in the industry command salaries exceeding $238,000.

"As people's skills improve, higher wages must be paid—especially given the expanding scale of these companies and the immense demand for labor," Crow said.

All major memory manufacturers have an urgent need for workers as they race to ramp up capacity to address the global memory shortage; industry giants like Nvidia and AMD face similar challenges.

South Korea is at the heart of this expansion; CNBC was given an exclusive first look at SK Hynix's massive memory complex—the world's largest—which is set to begin operations in February.

Although Micron currently manufactures all its advanced memory in Asia, it is building the first U.S. advanced memory plant in Boise, Idaho—scheduled to come online next year—and is constructing another facility in Clay, New York.

SK Hynix is also building its first U.S. plant at the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana, though this $4 billion facility will focus on memory chip packaging rather than front-end manufacturing. Even so, SK Hynix and Micron will be competing for the limited pool of skilled memory chip workers in the U.S.

"By collaborating with the local community, we can secure a large number of highly qualified employees within a few years. That is the truly critical issue," SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung told CNBC at a groundbreaking ceremony in Indiana.

According to a Reuters report on Wednesday, SK Hynix is in talks with Intel regarding plans to manufacture its memory chips in the U.S. for the first time. Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported that one option being considered is for SK Hynix to lease part of Intel's chip manufacturing facilities in Ohio. At a Micron event in July, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged SK Hynix and Samsung to build front-end memory plants in the United States. Taylor stated that the decisions regarding Samsung's plans were not his to make.

"Whether it's memory or logic, I'm still going to face immense pressure to find all the resources needed to operate these fabs," Taylor said.

Samsung and SK Hynix

Both Samsung and SK Hynix revealed to CNBC that they would temporarily deploy workers from South Korea to the U.S. to launch their new fab projects there. Previously, Samsung had sent U.S. employees to South Korea for months of hands-on training. TSMC adopted a similar approach when construction began on its first Arizona fabs in 2021.

"If you look at where advanced technology is concentrated, it's in Asia," Taylor said. "Our Korean colleagues are coming here to help us start up equipment that we aren't very familiar with."

ASML, the European manufacturer of advanced chip-making equipment, has recently established a training center in the U.S. to provide support.

Although skilled chip workers are primarily concentrated overseas, bringing in foreign talent via H-1B visas has become a costly and cumbersome process. Chipmakers told CNBC that their long-term plan is to build a domestic talent pipeline.

Universities in Taiwan and South Korea feature dedicated graduate schools or departments for semiconductor training. While not yet widespread in the U.S., some American universities have begun offering hands-on training programs, backed by significant investment from chip companies.

Purdue University launched a suite of semiconductor degree programs in 2022, with approximately 2,500 students enrolling in chip-related courses each semester. Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center provides students with training on chip-making equipment similar to what they might use in future facilities, such as the nearby SK Hynix plant.

"If you want young people specifically trained for the semiconductor industry, this is the only place right now where you can find graduates with that expertise," Mitch Daniels, Purdue's interim president and former governor of Indiana, told CNBC. "And our job fairs are always packed."

Meanwhile, Arizona State University has utilized $200 million in funding from chip equipment manufacturer Applied Materials to convert an old Motorola fab into a cleanroom facility and a new center for technology.

TSMC has also launched a technician training program at Arizona State University, guaranteeing an interview to students who complete the training. TSMC told CNBC that it visited about a dozen universities last year and plans to offer full-time roles to many of its hundreds of interns to help fill approximately 6,000 job openings at its first three Arizona fabs.

Intel launched an apprenticeship program in Arizona in 2024 and pledged $50 million in scholarships to more than 80 educational institutions near the chip plants it is building in Ohio. Intel also introduced a broader semiconductor education pathway program in 2025 that begins at the K-12 level.

Samsung is addressing the talent shortage by launching a workforce development initiative in 2023; the company donated millions of dollars to the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, and the University of Illinois to establish new chip engineering programs at each campus. Last year, Samsung also donated $1 million to help Tyler High School build a new technology lab and began recruiting more than 100 interns annually.

Federal support has also played a crucial role. Since the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act in 2022, more than 80 community colleges have launched or expanded semiconductor courses, aided in part by $200 million in federal funding dedicated to cultivating a domestic chip workforce.

"If we don't act faster and more aggressively than ever before, we will fail," Daniels said. "We cannot afford to have a record of failure."

Source: Compiled from CNBC

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