While in Taiwan House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) met with the island’s top semiconductor industry leaders as the US is looking to gain an edge on China when it comes to chip manufacturing.
Pelosi’s trip came after Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, a massive $280 billion piece of legislation that includes $52 billion in subsidies for companies to build and expand chip manufacturing facilities.
Pelosi met with the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s biggest chip manufacturer, to discuss the CHIPS and Science Act. The meeting signals that the US is looking to entice TSMC to open more facilities in the US with the subsidies included in the legislation.
TSMC is currently building a $12 billion semiconductor facility in Arizona, which is expected to be operational by 2024.
Pelosi said at a news conference in Taiwan on Wednesday that the CHIPS and Science Act means more cooperation between the US and Taiwan. “We just passed the CHIPS and Science Act. That is something that opens the door for us to have better economic exchanges,” she said.
While looking to boost its domestic chip production, the US is trying to hurt China’s ability to manufacture semiconductors with sanctions. The US is also pressing the Netherlands-based ASML Holding NV and the Japan-based Nikon Corporation not to sell the technology needed to manufacture semiconductors to China.
But US sanctions appear to have backfired as China’s chip industry is now the fastest growing in the world. According to Bloomberg, 19 of the world’s 20 fastest-growing chip industry firms over the past four quarters, on average, hail from China.
Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, has been under scrutiny for his trading of semiconductor stocks amid allegations of insider trading. In June, he purchased stocks in Nvidia, an American chip company. He then sold 25,000 shares of Nvidia stock at a loss the day before the House passed the CHIPS and Science Act. Overall, global semiconductor stocks took a hit due to Pelosi’s trip and the uncertainty it caused.
If Taiwan is not a threat to US and US can easily import Taiwanese chips to US or have them manufacture in US, then WTF is the meaning of CHIPS Act…?!!!
My opinion:
Trump stopped Qualcomm from selling chips to China’s Huawei Telecom to hurt Huawei’s 5G business opportunities. Although the decision was rescinded, China got the message and began investing in their own semi-conductor industry. Now it’s growing.
Due to supply chain issues in other industries and the possibility that China could militarily shut down Taiwan’s semiconductor exports to the US, pressure has been building to produce them domestically. The Chips and Science Act is intended to subsidize an infant industry while there is still time to get it off the ground.
With our tax money??? How many more billions, trillions can we print up???
But it is too late Duane… China chip industry has grown significantly for the past decade and any bailout to US chip manufacturers would not help…! US may have a slight edge to China militarily, but China’s Economic Weapons far exceeds that of US…!
I’m inclined toward agreeing with you NM.
If I were formatting a Chips Acts, I would be very specific: 1) Salted potato chips go best with Tuna Fish 2) Taco chips go best with Salsa
3) Kettle chips go with anything and so on…
I’m thinking that Taiwanese chips would go well with a noodle soup…
That is the best I can come up with, lol (maybe).
Cute…!
My compliments to Dave DeCamp. It’s surprisingly difficult to find all of the information provided here.
The Chips and Science Act does 2 remarkable things. I remember the controversy when Congress bailed out the auto industry. Yet this bill didn’t even raise many eyebrows. And it is government sponsored competition with the semi-conductor industries of both China and Taiwan. That also didn’t raise many eyebrows.
But China may nonetheless prevail because it has a significant head start; Its chips are more advanced than those of Taiwan; And China’s domestic market is ripe for sales to domestic electronics companies include Huawei.
I specifically remember when Lee Ioccoca’s little auto company was bailed out.