NEW YORK — President Joe Biden said the U.S. will invest “aggressively” in the semiconductor sector and is ready to “lead the world again,” as his White House met with tech leaders Monday virtually to discuss the resilience of the global chip supply chain.
Heads of 19 companies, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Samsung’s Device Solutions Division, Intel, Medtronic and Micron, are among the attendees of the CEO Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chain Resilience, hosted by national security adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese.
Chief executives of Google, Dell, HP, and AT&T Communications, as well as auto makers General Motors and Ford Motor — which have been hit particularly hard by the global chip shortage– are also present.
Biden, who dropped by the meeting early Monday afternoon, said “China and the rest of the world is not waiting, and there’s no reason why Americans should wait.”
“We’re investing aggressively in areas like semiconductors and batteries — that’s what they’re doing … so must we,” the president said.
Calling chips and wafers “infrastructure of today,” Biden vowed to work with business leaders and lawmakers of both parties to pass the American Jobs Plan — the $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill he unveiled in late March.
The sweeping spending plan includes $50 billion — a third more than the $37 billion figure Biden initially pushed for — earmarked for the U.S. semiconductor industry as part of the CHIPS for America program.
“We led the world in the middle of the 20th century. We led the world toward the end of the century, we’re going to lead the world again,” he continued at the virtual summit Monday.
“This is a moment for American strength and American unity for government, industry, communities to work together to make sure that we’re ready to meet the global competition that lies ahead, not continue to slide,” Biden said.
The business summit was held ahead of Biden’s Friday meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in Washington, where the two countries aim to announce a deal on working together to secure a supply chain for strategic technology components including semiconductors, Nikkei reported earlier this month.
In February, Biden signed an executive order mandating relevant agencies to identify immediate steps to address vulnerabilities in the semiconductor supply chain.
One key U.S. aim is to increase onshore manufacturing capacity, as the acute global chip shortage highlights the risks of overreliance on foundries in Asia.
After Biden’s order, Washington has stepped up talks with Taiwan to cooperate on the issue, including communicating U.S. hopes of attracting more Taiwanese investment.
Last May, TSMC announced its intention to build a $12 billion advanced chip production facility — its first in two decades — in the U.S. state of Arizona.
Weeks after Biden’s executive order, Intel also revealed plans to spend about $20 billion to build two facilities in Arizona, with construction starting immediately and production to begin in 2024.
“Having 80% of all supply in Asia simply isn’t a palatable manner for the world to have its view of the most critical technology,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger told the BBC at the time. Semiconductors are “the heart of every aspect of human existence going forward. And the world needs a more balanced supply chain to accomplish that. We’re stepping in.”
The American giant’s expansion into the foundry business poses a challenge to TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
