Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Thursday laid out the Biden administration’s ambitious vision for the implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act over the next decade.
The act was signed into law by President Joe Biden last summer and will allow the government to invest more than $200 billion over the next five years in a bid to help the United States regain a leading position in manufacturing semiconductor chips – a crucial component used in everything from cars to phones to health care devices to defense capabilities. The law is aimed at countering China’s growing economic influence, lowering the cost of goods, making the US less reliant on foreign manufacturing and mitigating supply chain disruptions.
In her speech on Thursday, Raimondo likened the administration’s long-term goals to implement the law to moments in American history that galvanized the science community into eras of innovation – comparing the CHIPS legislation to mass US investments in agriculture, nuclear security and space exploration.
“In the 1860s, President Lincoln made historic investments in agriculture and created a land-grant university system to ensure America’s food security. In the 1940s, Presidents Roosevelt and Truman invested in our nuclear security and pushed the boundaries of scientific innovation in the process. In 1961, President Kennedy united this entire country around his call to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. And by doing that, issuing that call to America, (it) … led to the creation of a generation of engineers, scientists, test pilots, and manufacturing workers who propelled this economy and our national security to lead the world – far ahead of the Soviet Union. We have a chance to do that again, ” Raimondo said in remarks at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
The CHIPS and Science Act, she added, “presents us with an opportunity to make investments that are similarly consequential for our country’s future. But only if we as a country unite behind a shared objective, generate a similar public/private mobilization and think boldly.”
Along with the economic threats posed by continuing to lag in the semiconductor space, Raimondo underscored that it posed national security risks to the US.
“Semiconductors form the foundation of every single advanced technology … AI, quantum, cloud, big data,” she said. “And everyone knows technology can be used for good or, in the wrong hands, can be used for malign purposes like we’ve never seen. The stakes couldn’t be higher.”
The CHIPS and Science Act allocated $39 billion for manufacturing incentives. Raimondo said that next week the Biden administration will be rolling out its funding applications for these expansion incentives.
Raimondo said the administration wants the US to achieve several goals by 2030, including having the US design and produce the world’s most advanced chips domestically, establishing “at least two new large-scale clusters” of cutting edge logic fabs.
Each of these clusters, Raimondo said, “will include a robust supplier ecosystem, research and development facilities to continuously innovate new process technologies, and specialized infrastructure.” Each of these clusters, she said, will employ more than 10,000 workers.
Additionally, she said, the US will develop advanced semiconductor packaging facilities and have the US “strategically increase its production capacity for the current-generation and mature-node chips.” These are the chips used in cars, in medical devices, and in the defense industry.
Raimondo added that US will need to triple the number of college graduates in semiconductor-related fields, including engineering. She said colleges and universities will have to partner with the semiconductor industry to ensure graduates have the necessary skills for the job. The administration is calling on these companies to partner with high school and community colleges to train over 100,000 new technicians over the next decade.
The ambitious plan, she argued, isn’t something out of reach, highlighting times when the US led the world in chip manufacturing.
“(The US) will be the premier destination in the world where new leading-edge chip architectures can be invented in our research labs, designed for every end-use application, manufactured at scale and packaged with the most advanced technologies,” she said. “That combination of technological leadership, supplier diversity, and resiliency does not exist anywhere else in the world today. And it won’t exist anywhere in the world until and unless we’re successful in implementing this initiative.”
