Raimondo said the decade-long edict was another"guardrail," and will mean that those who receive CHIPS Act cash can't use it for chips that get made or are sold in China, unless they're for the Chinese market and use a mature-node process – for example, CMOS image sensors in smartphones and cameras, display driver ICs for panels, flash memory controllers, microcontrollers, power management ICs, etc.
This acknowledges the ongoing supply chain problems that cannot be cured by spending months and years building CHIPS-funded US fabs. Industries such as automotive manufacturing, for example, have been hit hard over the past year or two, with customers waiting months for new vehicles. What's still up for debate is whether the companies in question have more leverage than the department is openly admitting when it talks about the guardrails against buybacks and China investment, particularly in light of the seeming urgency of its work to play catch-up with the Middle Kingdom.
At the end of 2021, according to the Bloomberg newswire, Biden administration officials"strongly discouraged" reported plans byWhen asked about this"seeming tension" and whether companies were willing to meet those"stringent demands" – and specifically questioned about Intel's alleged Chengdu plans – the Commerce Secretary responded that the department plans to recruit a team of expert negotiators from the semiconductor industry to put"the screws to these...
She added:"Micron is announcing a huge new facility.... onsemi is breaking ground on a new facility. Intel announced a new facility. These investments have been made by these companies because the CHIPS Act passed, and they have confidence now that the money will be put out the door."