US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short.
US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running.
The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial intelligence], and in bringing back good paying manufacturing jobs to the US,” Schumer said in an interview.
Photo: Bloomberg
The US$52 billion semiconductor subsidy program, which received bipartisan support, has spurred more than US$400 billion in investments from companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Intel Corp. When it passed, as a signature piece of former US president Joe Biden’s agenda, it won support from dozens of Republican lawmakers.
Speaking to a joint session of the US Congress on Tuesday night, Trump called for its repeal, to applause from congressional Republicans, including those whose states have benefited.
Republicans control both chambers of the US Congress, but a slim House of Representatives majority, plus an expected Senate filibuster, would make a repeal politically difficult. The legislation has drawn investments to Republican strongholds, such as Ohio and Texas, as well as Schumer’s home state of New York.
The US president has consistently derided a program he characterizes as a waste of government funds, arguing tariffs would achieve the same outcome while filling coffers. Trump pointed to the US$100 billion in new investment planned by TSMC in the US as evidence of the power of tariffs.
Schumer said there have already been benefits with many factories under construction. He said some have already gotten their money, but projects could be put at risk if Trump succeeded in repealing funding.
“That’s why it had such bipartisan support, and I believe that there’ll be an overwhelming number of people in the Senate — Democrat and Republican — who want to keep it,” Schumer added.
Republicans have previously indicated that they want to remove what they see as “social” provisions of the CHIPS Act. That could involve eliminating labor-friendly regulations or environmental requirements.
US Senator Mike Crapo, who heads the Finance Committee, on Wednesday said that he would be open to some adjustments to the act, but opposes a full repeal.
“We’re not looking at that,” Crapo said.
Young called the law “one of the greatest successes of our time,” and said he received assurances from Trump Cabinet nominees both in public and in private that they would carry out the CHIPS Act before he committed to supporting their confirmation.
The Indiana Republican said he reached out to the White House on Tuesday night after Trump’s speech and expressed a willingness to improve the program.
“My expectation is the administration will continue to support this supply chain resiliency and national security initiative,” he said. “If it needs to transfer over to a different model over time, I’m open to that.”
Democratic US Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, whose state is home to several factories planned by TSMC and Intel with CHIPS Act support, said he would be scrutinizing the Trump administration’s work in implementing the law, to ensure none of the money is held back.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
Handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Sunday reported a 6.71 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for the third quarter, despite revenue last month hitting the highest level in 11 months. Third-quarter revenue was NT$17.68 billion (US$581.2 million), compared with NT$18.95 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The figure was in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$17.9 billion, but missed the market consensus estimate of NT$18.97 billion. The third-quarter revenue was a 51.44 percent increase from NT$11.67 billion in the second quarter, as the quarter is usually the peak
Nvidia Corp’s major server production partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) reported 10.99 percent year-on-year growth in quarterly sales, signaling healthy demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Revenue totaled NT$2.06 trillion (US$67.72 billion) in the last quarter, in line with analysts’ projections, a company statement said. On a quarterly basis, revenue was up 14.47 percent. Hon Hai’s businesses cover four primary product segments: cloud and networking, smart consumer electronics, computing, and components and other products. Last quarter, “cloud and networking products delivered strong growth, components and other products demonstrated significant growth, while smart consumer electronics and computing products slightly declined,” compared with the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
RSS