Chip makers are refusing to build new semiconductor plants in the U.S. unless Congress unlocks $52 billion in funding
Eamon Barrett / Tue, June 28, 2022 at 2:13 AM
The world’s third-largest maker of semiconductor wafers, Taiwan’s GlobalWafers, announced plans to build a $5 billion factory in the U.S. on Monday—but only if the [U.S.] government helps pay for it.
“This investment that they’re making is contingent upon Congress passing the CHIPS Act. The [GlobalWafers] CEO told me that herself, and they reiterated that today,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNBC, the same day GlobalWafers announced its development plan.
Congress actually passed the CHIPS Act, which proposed $52 billion in funding for local players to invest in the domestic chip industry, in January 2021 as part of that year’s National Defense Authorization Act—an annual bill designed to provide guidance on policies and funding for the year. But, over a year later, Congress has yet to formally allocate any budget to finance the bill.
“It has to be done before [Congress goes] to August recess. I don’t know how to say it any more plainly. [The GlobalWafers] deal…will go away, I think, if Congress doesn’t act,” Raimondo told CNBC.
The CHIPS Act is intended to shore up America’s flagging chip industry as a hedge against China’s accelerated development of its own semiconductor capabilities and shift global production away from China’s shores. The majority of global semiconductor manufacturing is consolidated in Taiwan, an independent island that Beijing claims sovereignty over.
finance.yahoo.com
Information is power, and power can rule the world. The U.S. may already have ceded too much to China and other foreign producers, idling U.S. manufacturing capacity, employment, innovation, and leadership.
It's not treachery to buy a Toyota SUV, or a Sony camera. But the U.S. has lost the edge. And due to the complexity of modern semiconductor manufacturing, regaining the edge in the foreseeable future may be impossible, and simply achieving competitiveness in global markets may be a very difficult challenge.
So what should be done?
Eamon Barrett / Tue, June 28, 2022 at 2:13 AM
The world’s third-largest maker of semiconductor wafers, Taiwan’s GlobalWafers, announced plans to build a $5 billion factory in the U.S. on Monday—but only if the [U.S.] government helps pay for it.
“This investment that they’re making is contingent upon Congress passing the CHIPS Act. The [GlobalWafers] CEO told me that herself, and they reiterated that today,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNBC, the same day GlobalWafers announced its development plan.
Congress actually passed the CHIPS Act, which proposed $52 billion in funding for local players to invest in the domestic chip industry, in January 2021 as part of that year’s National Defense Authorization Act—an annual bill designed to provide guidance on policies and funding for the year. But, over a year later, Congress has yet to formally allocate any budget to finance the bill.
“It has to be done before [Congress goes] to August recess. I don’t know how to say it any more plainly. [The GlobalWafers] deal…will go away, I think, if Congress doesn’t act,” Raimondo told CNBC.
The CHIPS Act is intended to shore up America’s flagging chip industry as a hedge against China’s accelerated development of its own semiconductor capabilities and shift global production away from China’s shores. The majority of global semiconductor manufacturing is consolidated in Taiwan, an independent island that Beijing claims sovereignty over.
Chip makers are refusing to build new semiconductor plants in the U.S. unless Congress unlocks $52 billion in funding
Taiwanese semiconductor firm GlobalWafers joins Intel and TSMC in urging Congress to fund U.S. development.
Information is power, and power can rule the world. The U.S. may already have ceded too much to China and other foreign producers, idling U.S. manufacturing capacity, employment, innovation, and leadership.
It's not treachery to buy a Toyota SUV, or a Sony camera. But the U.S. has lost the edge. And due to the complexity of modern semiconductor manufacturing, regaining the edge in the foreseeable future may be impossible, and simply achieving competitiveness in global markets may be a very difficult challenge.
So what should be done?