In September, the chip giant Intel gathered officials at a patch of land near Columbus, Ohio, where it promised to invest at least $20 billion in two new factories.
A month later, Micron Technology celebrated a new manufacturing site near Syracuse, NY, where the chip company expected to spend $20 billion by the end of the decade and possibly five times that.
In December, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company hosted a shindig in Phoenix, where it plans to triple its investment and build a second factory to create advanced chips.
The pledges are part of an enormous ramp-up in U.S. chip-making plans. The United States wants to prevent China from becoming an advanced power in chips, the slices of Silicon that have driven the creation of innovative computing devices such as smartphones and virtual-reality goggles.
Even beyond the tech industry's creations, chips are an essential part of modern life.
According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, more than 35 companies have pledged nearly $200 billion for manufacturing projects related to chips. In Texas, Arizona and New York, the money will be spent on 23 new chip factories, the expansion of nine plants, and investments from companies that supply equipment and materials to the industry.
The Biden administration dangles at least $76 billion in grants, tax credits and other subsidies in order to encourage domestic chip production. The largest U.S. investment in manufacturing since World War II took place when the federal government spent money on new ships and factories.
Daniel Armbrust, the former chief executive of Sematech, said that he had never seen a wave like this.
President Biden has staked his economic agenda on stimulating chip production in the U.S. Taiwan is the location of many of the world's cutting-edge chips. In the event of a conflict, there are fears that the United States will be at a technological disadvantage.
How much is inflation? Your dollar won't go as far tomorrow as it did today due to inflation. The change in prices for everyday goods and services is known as the annual change in prices.
Is there a cause for inflation? It could be due to increased consumer demand. There are developments that have little to do with economic conditions and can cause inflation to rise and fall.
I wonder if inflation is bad. It is dependent on the situation. Moderate price gains can lead to higher wages.
Inflation can affect the stock market. It's difficult for stocks to be affected by rapid inflation. Houses have held their value better than financial assets during inflation booms.
Some of these imbalances may be corrected by the new U.S. production efforts, but only up to a point.
The industry's most advanced manufacturing technology may not be available when the new chip factories begin operations. If the White House doesn't give enough subsidies, the projects could be delayed or canceled. The boom may be hampered by a severe shortage of skills, as the complex factories need more engineers than the students graduating from U.S. colleges and universities.
Chris Miller is an associate professor of international history and the author of a book on the chip industry.
The White House believes that the investments in chip-making will improve U.S. economic security. The potential impact on tech companies like Apple that rely on TSMC was highlighted by Mr. Biden at the TSMC event. As more of these companies bring more of their supply chain home, it could be a game-changing change.
The US companies produced chips for decades. As countries in Asia provided incentives to move manufacturing to those shores, the country's share of global production capacity gradually slid to 12 percent.
More than 90 percent of the most advanced chips are made in Taiwan, according to industry analysts.
Spending will improve America's position. A $50 billion government investment is likely to prompt corporate spending that will take the US's share of global production to as much as 14 percent by the year 2030.
John Neuffer, the association's president, said that it puts them in the game for the first time in decades and that the estimate may be conservative.
The ramp-up isn't likely to eliminate US dependence on Taiwan for advanced chips. Such chips are the most powerful because they pack the highest number of transistors onto each slice of Silicon, and they are often seen as a sign of a nation's technological progress.
The number of transistors on a chip is usually described in nanometers, or billionths of a meter, with smaller numbers indicating the most cutting edge production technology. In the last few years, TSMC surged ahead.
TSMC's most advanced manufacturing technology can't be imported at its Phoenix site. The company initially announced that it would produce five-nanometer chips at the Phoenix factory, before saying last month that it would also make four-nanometer chips there. It didn't discuss further advances.
TSMC began to produce three-nanometer technology at the end of the year. Handel Jones, chief executive at International Business Strategies, said that Apple will most likely be supplied with two-nanometer chips by the year 2025.
TSMC and Apple didn't say anything.
It's not clear whether other chip companies will bring more advanced technology to their new sites. A new factory in Texas is expected to cost $17 billion, but no production technology has been disclosed. The US factories of Intel will be able to make three-nanometer chips by the year 2024.
The spending boom will reduce U.S. reliance on Asia for other types of chips Domestic factories only make 4% of the world's memory chips, which are needed to store data in computers, smartphones and other consumer devices.
Over the past two years, the U.S. auto industry had to shut down factories and produce partially finished vehicles due to a shortage of older, simpler chips. TSMC is a major producer of some of these chips, but it is focused on more profitable plants for advanced chips.
Synaptics, a Silicon Valley chip designer that relies heavily on TSMC's older factories in Taiwan, still has a dependency that is not being impacted.
According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, there will be 40,000 new jobs created by the chip-making boom. About 277,000 people work in the US Semiconductor industry.
It will be hard to find skilled positions. Scientists and technicians are usually needed in chip factories. According to recent surveys of executives, the talent shortage is the industry's toughest challenge.
Work force development is funded by the CHIPS Act. The Commerce Department has made it clear that organizations trying to get funding should come up with plans for training and educating workers.
$100 million will be invested by Intel to spur training and research at universities. Sky Water Technology, a chip maker, has decided to build a plant in Indiana because of the goal of graduating 1,000 engineers a year by the university.
As chip companies compete with other industries for workers, training may only be the first step.
At an event in September,Mitch Daniels, who was president of Purdue at the time, said, "We're going to have to build a Semiconductor Economy that attracts people when they have a lot of other options."
Industry executives want to make it easier for highly educated foreign workers to get visas to work in the United States if they get their degrees. Washington officials are aware of the risk that comments encouraging more immigration could cause.
Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, was candid in a speech in November.
She said that attracting the world's best scientific minds is an advantage for America. We will not allow that to happen.
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