Yuka Hayashi of The Wall Street Journal is telling her readers that the Biden administration, eager for an economic win, is injecting billions into advanced chips. Hayashi writes:
The Biden administration, eager to highlight a signature economic initiative as elections approach, is expected to award billions of dollars in subsidies to Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, and other top semiconductor companies in coming weeks to help build new factories.
The grants are part of the $53 billion Chips Act, intended to reshore production of advanced microchips and fend off China, which is fast developing its own chip industry.
The slow pace of implementation of the 2022 bipartisan law has frustrated some. More than 170 firms have applied but, to date, just two tiny grants have been made, to makers of less advanced chips. […]
“The chip industry is capital-intensive and, as such, firms need predictability,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a semiconductor expert advising Rand Corp. “They will hedge significant investments such as purchasing equipment, which accounts for 80% of fab costs, until they are certain that there is market demand and that government incentives will be in place at the level needed to compete globally.”
Read more here.