16 September 2020 - 18:10The US chip industry said it needs as much as $50bn in federal incentives to halt a decades-long trend of manufacturing moving overseas as China spends heavily to become a leading semiconductor producer.
“Six months ago, I don’t think we could have had this discussion, the world’s gone in our direction,” said John Neuffer, CEO of the SIA. “It’s not a bit of a change in Washington, it’s a significant shift.” While US production ebbs, China’s government is pouring money into its domestic semiconductor industry, conferring the same kind of priority on the effort it accorded to building its atomic capability. That has made chip manufacturing a matter of national security.
Senator John Cornyn is sponsoring a bipartisan Chips for America Act to increase government support for the industry, and he weighed in on the issue on Wednesday. “Domestic semiconductor manufacturing has been steadily declining, and the Covid-19 pandemic has made clear how vulnerable our existing supply chains are,” the Republican senator from Texas said. “This report underscores the need to boost American production of semiconductors.