US Senate Earlier this week, he passed the CHIPS Act, which includes $52 billion to support domestic semiconductor production. He still has to fight his way through the bureaucracy (here’s a quick refresher), but clearing the Senate is a big and important step toward making more money for the U.S. chip manufacturing industry.
Personally, I think this can happen for a few reasons. Yes, yes — supply chain problems and chip shortages have been a ban on everyone’s lives for a hot minute, and outsourcing some of these manufacturing materials, tools, and know-how would go a long way toward making the U.S. dependent on outside manufacturing. And generally more resilient.
That’s all well and good, but let’s face it, $52 billion isn’t exactly a bag of copper and nickel, but chip manufacturing. dear. The last planned chip factories that I can recall are the $19 billion factory Intel is building in Germany and the $20 billion factory the company is building here in the US. That means jobs, but it won’t exactly turn America into a chip-fab juggernaut overnight.
More than new factories, I’m excited about the possibility of history repeating itself. Intel’s decision to build a $20 billion chip manufacturing facility in Columbus, Ohio, along with recent news of a potential investment in the industry, could set the stage for a booming startup ecosystem.
