US President Joe Biden’s administration is providing US$162 million to Microchip Technology Inc to support the domestic production of computer chips — the second funding announcement tied to a 2022 law designed to revive US semiconductor manufacturing.
The incentives include US$90 million to improve a plant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and US$72 million to expand a factory in Gresham, Oregon, the US Department of Commerce in a statement said.
The investments would enable Microchip to triple its domestic production and reduce its dependence on foreign factories.
Photo: Reuters
Much of the money would fund the making of microcontrollers, which are used by the military as well as in autos, household appliances and medical devices. US government officials said they expected the investments to create 700 construction and manufacturing jobs over the next decade.
US National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard said that the funding would help to tame inflation.
“Semiconductors are the key input in so many goods that are vital to our economy,” said Brainard, adding that greater US production of chips would have reduced the supply problems that caused the cost of autos and washing machines, among other goods, to rise as the country emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
In August 2022, Biden signed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which provides more than US$52 billion to boost the development and manufacturing of semiconductors in the US.
Last month, the US Department of Commerce announced the first grants by saying it reached an agreement to provide US$35 million to BAE Systems Inc, which plans to expand a New Hampshire factory making chips for military aircraft, including F-15 and F-35 jets.
More than 570 firms have expressed interest in the CHIPS Act program, and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has said the administration plans to make about a dozen awards this year.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
RSS