The Biden administration is mobilizing behind bipartisan legislation to pump $52 billion into the U.S. semiconductor industry over five years amid a global chip shortage.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Monday that she anticipated the funding would generate “$150 billion-plus” in investment in chip production and research, including contributions from state and federal governments and private-sector firms.
“We just need the federal money … to unlock private capital,” she said at a Micron Technology chip factory in Manassas, Va., adding, “it could be seven, could be eight, could be nine, could be 10 new factories in America by the time we’re done.”
The emergency funding proposal, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer unveiled last week, is part of a $120 billion package of spending on U.S. technology research to better compete with China.
“American manufacturing has suffered rather dramatically from a chip shortage,” Schumer said. “We simply cannot rely on foreign processors for chips. This amendment will make sure that we don’t have to.”
Supporters of the funding note the U.S. now has only a 12 percent share of semiconductor and microelectronics production, compared with 37 percent in 1990.
Click here to read the full report from Matthew Heller at CFO.com.