Get more funding for the chip so we can meet, executives urge Congress
MALTA – Top technology executives urge Congress to swiftly pass $ 52 billion CHIPS Act designed to fight China’s accelerated control over full-fledged computer chip manufacturing from phones to cars, airplanes, home appliances and healthcare devices.
Lobbying comes as China and Taiwan, which make up a large share of the chips used in the United States, are locked in a growing confrontation over Taiwan’s sovereignty that could potentially lead to a military conflict that disrupts the global supply of chips.
Last week, 59 CEOs of major technology and manufacturing companies sent a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and other top congressional leaders to pass the The CHIPS Act amid a global chip failure that forced carmakers to shut down production lines and contributed. for the worst rate of price inflation in decades.
“The shortfall exposed vulnerabilities in the semiconductor supply chain and highlighted the need for increased domestic manufacturing capacity,” reads the letter, signed by GlobalFoundries CEO Tom Caulfield and others. “The failure of the chip poses risks to our entire economy and time is of the essence.”
Schumer defended the historic CHIPS Act bill which could lead to spree spending by Malta-based GlobalFoundries and other chip makers. The account will also finance the creation of a new federal chip manufacturing research laboratory which may be headquartered in Albany Nanotech.
Schumer reached out that the CHIPS Act passed the Senate earlier this year, but the House of Representatives has yet to pass the spending bill among the strong growing partisans in Congress on spending.
There has been talk of possibly introducing the CHIPS Act into the federal defense spending bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act. But Republicans have threatened to block the plan.
Instead, Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided last month that it would be best to try to pass the CHIPS Act, which was previously rolled out in a larger manufacturing and research bill called the United States Innovation and Competition Act, through the traditional reconciliation process between the Senate and the House.
GlobalFoundries in particular is leading the charge to pass the CHIPS Act. The bill could provide up to $ 2 billion to chip companies building new chip factories, or “fabs,” in the United States. GlobalFoundries says such financial support will allow it to build a second factory in Malta, employing 3,000 people in its Fab 8. campus. The second fab employs an additional 1,000 workers and significantly boosts the company’s manufacturing output on site.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, who accompanied Schumer on a visit to Fab 8 in July to push the passage of the CHIPS Act through the House, has doubled its support for funding.
“The United States has once been a leader in the production of semiconductor chips, which power our smartphones, medical devices and cars,” Raimondo said during a visit to Michigan last week to highlight the impact. of the lack of a chip on the automotive industry. “But today, we account for only 12 percent of global production and produce zero percent of the most advanced chips.”