Intel Corp’s plans for a multibillion-dollar investment in a new US semiconductor plant hang in part on the US Congress moving on a stalled plan to bolster the domestic chip industry, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said.
“The capital plans that we’ve laid out do not presume anything heroic on the part of the government, but we’d like to go bigger and faster as a result of the investments from the US government,” Gelsinger said on Bloomberg Television.
Intel’s earnings report on Thursday underscored the costs of returning the world’s largest chipmaker to global industry leadership.
Photo: Reuters
A bipartisan push to make the US more competitive with China and bolster domestic chip production risks falling by the wayside as Congress grapples with a packed year-end agenda in an ever-more divided Capital.
The US Senate passed a bill in June with almost US$250 billion in funding for research and development programs, including US$52 billion in emergency funding to provide grants and incentives to the semiconductor industry in the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act.
Action has stalled in the US House of Representatives over differences in other parts of the bill.
“Our strong plea to the House is get the CHIPS act done, get it funded, because I know we and others are looking forward to the opportunity to go even faster to rebuild our supply chains, to get more of that back on US soil as a result of this funding,” Gelsinger said.
Tech companies and policymakers argue that without government subsidies, the US would not keep pace with countries such as China, whose chip industry is heavily supported by the government.
Intel vice president of government relations Al Thompson cited plans by the EU and South Korea to offer incentives to their homegrown semiconductor manufacturers as a reason for the US to get involved in boosting the industry.
“If you want to start to reverse the continued decline of manufacturing share, CHIPS is necessary,” he said in a separate interview.
The company’s plan to develop a fabrication facility at a yet-to-be named US location “would be very difficult” without the incentives in the legislation, he said.
“We aren’t going to be able to do that without CHIPS funding,” Thompson said.
Fabrication plants cost billions of dollars to build and equip and take several years to complete. Thompson said that every year Congress delays support could mean an additional three-year delay to bringing a plant online.
Separately, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday said it would submit its comments to the US in response to Washington’s request for chipmakers to provide information on the semiconductor supply chain by Nov. 8.
TSMC will provide the information requested by the US Department of Commerce, it said, adding that it “has been actively supporting and working with all stakeholders to overcome the global semiconductor supply challenge.”
“Looking forward, to increase the demand visibility in this complex supply chain should be the path to avoid such shortage from happening in the future. We have been a strong partner in this effort and will continue taking actions to address this challenge,” the chipmaker said.
TSMC’s comments came after a US Department of Commerce spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday that it had received indications from several companies that they would supply information.
The companies mentioned include both US and foreign firms, including Intel, General Motors Co, Infineon Technologies AG of Germany and SK Hynix Inc of South Korea. TSMC was not mentioned.
Additional reporting by CNA
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