“This investment they make depends on the passage of the CHIPS bill by Congress. [GlobalWafers] “The CEO told me that and they repeated it today,” US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNBC on the same day that GlobalWafers announced its development plan. Congress actually passed the CHIPS Act, which proposed $ 52 billion in funding to local players to invest in the domestic chip industry in January 2021 as part of that year’s National Defense Authorization Act — an annual bill that has been drafted for provide guidance on year policies and funding. However, more than a year later, Congress has not yet formally allocated any funding for the bill. “It must be done before [Congress goes] until the August holidays. I do not know how to say it more clearly. [The GlobalWafers] “The deal… will disappear, I think, if Congress does not act,” Raimondo told CNBC. CHIPS is intended to support America’s chip industry as compensation for China’s rapidly growing semiconductor capabilities and to shift global production off the coast of China. The majority of world semiconductor production is consolidated in Taiwan – an independent island on which Beijing claims sovereignty. Technically, CHIPS is supposed to support domestic companies – not foreign companies investing in America. But last December, the US-based semiconductor industry organization SEMI urged Congress to open CHIPS funding to all US-invested companies. Taiwan-based GlobalWafers, which has proposed building its new plant in Texas, is not the only chipmaker to depend on its state-funded investment in the United States. In 2020, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC), the world’s largest manufacturer of conventional chips, announced plans for a $ 12 billion factory in Phoenix, Arizona to produce its most advanced chips. However, TSMC CEO Mark Liu made it clear that growth would only proceed if the government could “make up for the difference in TSMC operating costs between the United States and Taiwan.” The story goes on The state of Arizona has approved at least $ 200 million in public infrastructure funding to support the TSMC plant in Phoenix, including road and sewer costs. In June, TSMC said that the construction of its Arizona plant, which is in progress, proved more expensive than the company expected, and called on Washington to extend CHIPS support to foreign companies. Of course, domestic players want the government to help subsidize their own expansions in the US. Last week, Intel froze construction of its last $ 20 billion plant in Ohio and postponed the inauguration ceremony indefinitely – or until Congress finances CHIPS. “Unfortunately, funding for the CHIPS Act has been slower than we expected and we do not yet know when it will be completed,” an Intel spokesman told the Wall Street Journal, urging Congress to act so that Intel can move forward with speed and scale that we have long envisioned for Ohio. “ This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
