Leaders of the American semiconductor industry are putting their resources closer to the gadget manufacturing centers in China. The only questions in my mind are:

In separate releases over the past week, chip stalwarts Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) announced closer ties to the Chinese geography. TI bought a manufacturing facility in Chengdu that's capable of making $1 billion worth of chips annually with the option to expand the clean room to even higher capacity. AMD signed a business agreement with the local authorities in Beijing that will place significant investments within the city.

Both of these moves make eminent sense. Captive manufacturing capacity is a point of pride and business strength for TI, and why wouldn't you want to churn out semiconductors right next to the massive Foxconn and Nam Tai Electronics (NYSE: NTE) factories that build consumer-friendly trinkets around the chips? Others depend of local manufacturing services by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), United Microelectronics (NYSE: UMC), and others, but that strategy runs into problems when everyone loads up on remote orders that TSMC and company are hard-pressed to fulfill. Just ask NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) for an example of this issue.

For AMD, a second research hub in China focusing on advanced areas like triple-network convergence and supercomputing provides tax-efficient access to massive workforce of top-notch engineers, which is exactly what the company needs in order to stay competitive to market bully Intel (Nasdaq: INTC). Intel runs operations of its own in China but stops short of opening chip manufacturing facilities there. For what it's worth, Intel is currently recruiting hardware and process engineers in the northeastern city of Dalian, possibly hinting that they're exploring a coming chip shop in that general area.

It's a different situation for information-based businesses, but for hardware companies like Intel, AMD, and TI, knitting close ties to China is an obvious strategy with equally obvious efficiency benefits. It's kind of like setting up your bowls of flour, egg, and bread crumbs next to the stove before you pan-fry your pork chops or halibut filets.

Are TI and AMD smart for jumping across the Great Wall or stupid for not moving there faster? Discuss in the comments below.