By now you've heard about the "chip shortage" – the semiconductor industry falling way behind on making new semiconductor "chips" due to the pandemic and supply chain problems.
The CHIPS for America Act can help us turn that around.
It's short for "Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act." Introduced to Congress in June 2020, it was signed into law January
2021.
The Act calls for investment in & support of semiconductor production within the U.S. – that is, reshoring!
The Act declares up to $52 billion in grants for the construction of semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and income tax credits for semiconductor equipment or manufacturing facility investment through 2026.
Awesome news! So why hasn't this been crowed about nationwide? Well, because of one little snag...no one's allocated funding yet.
Congress has tried twice to grant funding, first in 2021 with the United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), and then in early 2022 with the America COMPETES Act. The latter is still under congressional debate, and may pass later in the year.
But as of publication, not a cent.
Still, it seems private industry isn't waiting. They're moving forward with plans to build new or expand existing semiconductor facilities.
- Intel hired 3,500 workers for an expansion of their Hillsboro, OR manufacturing facility – a $3
billion effort.
- Intel has also committed $20 billion to building state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing plants in Ohio by 2025.
- Wolfspeed Inc., a Durham, NC-based semiconductor manufacturer, has started up a new production facility in
Utica, NY – a $1.2 billion initiative.
- Samsung plans a new semiconductor plant in Texas, committing $17 billion to the effort.
- In 2020, TSMC announced plans to build a $12 billion chip factory in Arizona, expecting to hire over 1,500 people for it.
- Micron Technology, an Idaho-based memory manufacturer, wants to build a new chip factory in the U.S. as part of a 10-year global investment...if the CHIPS Act receives funding.
- Micron's Chief Business Officer, Sumit Sadana, said that, "The U.S. ought to have more than 2% of memory manufacturing for the sake of national security and for the sake of supply chain resiliency."
- GlobalFoundries plans to expand its New York semiconductor manufacturing plant, investing $1 billion to increase
production by more than 150,000 chips per year.
These efforts produce an immense boon for U.S. tech manufacturing as a whole, and the semiconductor industry in particular. It will take time, but the efforts should curb the infamous "chip shortage" within a year or two.
The plants mean millions more chips every year for computers, phones, electric vehicles, utilities, and much more. All made in America.
It's the best Reshoring News we've seen in a long time!
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