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.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS