With recent multi-billion-dollar grants to Intel, TSMC, Samsung, and Micron, the US government has now spent over half its $39bn in Chips Act incentives. In so doing it has driven an unexpected investment boom. Chip companies and supply chain partners have announced investments totalling $327bn over the next 10 years, according to Semiconductor Industry Association calculations. US statistics show a stunning 15-fold increase in construction of manufacturing facilities for computing and electronics devices. Debate about the Chips Act has focused on delays and manufacturing difficulties, but the vast volume of investment tells a different story.
Pandemic-era shortages showed how small deficits of even lower-tech foundational chips could cause hundreds of billions of dollars of economic damage. The ensuing Chips Act aims to encourage construction of new chip fabrication facilities (fabs) in the US. This will reduce reliance on a small number of East Asian suppliers — today nearly all cutting-edge processors are made in Taiwan.