WASHINGTON : U.S. President Joe Biden met with executives of chipmakers including Samsung, Micron and other companies on Wednesday as part of an effort to push the U.S. Congress to fund $52 billion in grants to chipmakers to ease the semiconductor crunch.
Legislation on the issue has been stalled in Congress, although a Senate aide told Reuters on Wednesday that Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, the leader of Senate Republicans, are negotiating a process to begin a conference on the bill during this work period. The House of Representatives on Feb. 4 narrowly passed a bill aimed at increasing American competitiveness with China in part by allocating $52 billion to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.
The funding includes $2 billion to incentivize production of"mature node" semiconductors used by the auto industry and in medical devices, agricultural machinery and some national defense applications.