Dani Rodrik on the CHIPS Act

A skeptic might object that Biden’s policies have not fully borne fruit and are not yet captured in official statistics.  But the fact is that hugely capital-intensive semiconductor plants generate few jobs, relative to the physical investment they require.  TSMC’s three fab investments in Arizona are expected to employ a mere 6,000 workers – which works out to more than $10 million per job.  Even if the projected tens of thousands of additional jobs in supplier industries materialize, that is a paltry return for employment.

~ Dani Rodrik, "America's manufacturing renaissance will create few good jobs," Project Syndicate, April 22, 2024

TSMC fab under construction in North Phoenix

Alphonse Chan on the U.S. push to onshore high end semiconductor manufacturing

Q: The United States has also taken a number of steps to insulate itself from the risk of Taiwan being attacked or some kind of disruption abroad by bringing chip manufacturing home to the United States.  How has that been going?

Alphonse Chan: Well, it's the United States and other countries in Europe and Japan as well.  They are all trying to secure their chip supply by again onshoring, as you mentioned.  And I'd say so far that has not led to chip production in the United States as of today.  Manufacturing chips is a hugely complex process and you simply can't throw up a factory with cinder blocks.  These are actually engineering marvels of the world.  And Taiwan Semiconductor has had trouble, number one building these facilities in Arizona and staffing them, and they continue to have labor issues today.  When this [the CHIPS Act] was announced it was thought that that would bring leading edge chips manufacturing to the U.S. and that might be a nice political statement, but by the time these facilities are up and running, those chips will no longer be leading edge.

~ Alphonse Chan, Jr., "Taiwan, Semiconductors, and the Global Economy - Silvercrest," 8:40 mark, June 18, 2024

President Biden signs CHIPS Act into law

For all the division in our country, we are showing ourselves and the world that we can take on the biggest challenges.  We can take on the special interests.  And that our democracy can deliver for the people of this country.  That's why I'm confident that decades from now people are going to look back at this week with all we passed and all we moved on, that we met the moment at this inflection point in history.  A moment when we bet on ourselves, believed in ourselves and recaptured the story, the spirit and the soul of this nation.  We are the United States of America, a singular place of possibilities.  I'm now going to sign the CHIPS and Science Act and once again, I promise you, we're leading the world again for the next decades.

~ President Joe Biden, "Biden to take victory lap in Ohio after passage of CHIPS Act," Yahoo Finance, September 8, 2022

Congressman Tom Cole on why he voted for the CHIPS Act

Although this is not a perfect bill and not the one I would have written, it is a step in the right direction toward keeping Communist China at bay and protecting our nation’s economic and security interests.  At a time when China is becoming increasingly aggressive and dangerously trying to command the world order, the CHIPS and Science Act importantly strengthens America’s global competitiveness by investing in our nation’s semiconductor industry and encouraging manufacturing of those critical pieces of technology domestically.  We must secure our industries from foreign adversaries, and that is exactly what this legislation achieves.

~ Congressman Tom Cole (R-Okla.), "These are the 24 House Republicans who broke with the party to support chips and science bill," The Hill, July 28, 2022