Biden signs law to stimulate the microchip industry and companies announce investments

First modification: 08/10/2022 – 04:22

“The future is going to be made in America,” said President Joe Biden, calling the move “a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself.” This, just the day that two technology companies announced investments for more than 40,000 million in the sector.

Biden applauded the investments chip companies are making, though it remains unclear when the US Commerce Department will draft rules to review grant awards and how long it will take to fund projects.

The CEOs of ‘Micron’, ‘Intel’, ‘Lockheed Martin’, ‘HP’ and ‘Advanced Micro Devices’ attended the signing, as did the Governors of Pennsylvania and Illinois, the Mayors of Detroit, Cleveland and Salt Lake City, and legislators.

The companies ‘Micron’ and ‘Qualcomm’ announced that they will invest 44.2 billion dollars in the manufacture of chips in the United States, an achievement that is attributed to the law approved in Congress and promoted by the president, Joe Biden, to subsidize the manufacture of microprocessors.

After the approval of the Senate and the House of Representatives, Biden signed the law that subsidizes the manufacture of microchips with 52.7 billion dollars and strengthens supply chains to improve the position of the US against Chinese competition.

In a statement, the White House revealed that thanks to the “stimulus” of this law, ‘Micron’ will invest 40,000 million dollars to manufacture memory chips in the US that will create 8,000 new jobs and that will make the US market share production of memory chips goes from the current 2% to 10%.

Democrats argued that the bill is a gift to chip companies that previously closed plants in the United States, but Biden argued Tuesday that “this law is not handing companies blank checks.

New investments from private companies

The other announced investment is part of an agreement between ‘Qualcomm’ and ‘GlobalFoundries’, which will jointly allocate 4,200 million dollars to expand the factory that ‘GlobalFoundaries’ already has in the state of New York to manufacture microprocessors.

The ambitious industrial policy law approved by Congress contemplates a total investment of 280,000 million dollars, of which 52,700 million are aimed at promoting the construction and expansion of national semiconductor factories with subsidies and additional credits.

The United States considers the manufacture of microprocessors a key issue for the national economy and security, especially due to China’s intention to dominate the market in this field.

Since 2020, the global economy has suffered from a shortage of microchips, caused in part by the effects of the pandemic, trade tensions between China and the United States, and climatic factors.

With EFE and Reuters