The CHIPS Act and a Long-term Vision for America’s Technological Leadership

I’d like to talk about the incredible opportunity we have as a nation to unleash the next generation of American innovation, protect our national security, and preserve our global economic competitiveness as we implement the historic CHIPS and Science Act....Today, because of President Biden’s leadership, working with Congress, the CHIPS and Science Act presents us with an opportunity to make investments that are similarly consequential for our nation’s future. But only if we--as a nation—unite behind a shared objective, generate a similar public-private mobilization and think boldly.  The research, innovation, and manufacturing sparked by this law can enable us to be the technological superpower, securing our economic and national security future for the coming decades. Years from now, when we judge the success of this program, we will be measured on at least two key imperatives. First, whether this program enabled us to build a reliable and resilient semiconductor industry that protects America’s technological leadership for the coming decades. Second, we will be judged on whether we were good stewards of taxpayer dollars. We are making a public investment in private industry without recent precedent, and taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability. These are the goals we aim to achieve by 2030: First, America will design and produce the world’s most advanced chips on our shores. Specifically, the U.S. will have at least two new large-scale clusters of leading-edge logic fabs, that will have been built by highly-skilled union labor. Additionally, the U.S. will develop multiple high-volume advanced packaging facilities, and become a global leader in packaging technologies. U.S.-based fabs will also produce advanced memory chips on economically competitive terms. And the U.S. will strategically increase its production capacity for the current-generation and mature-node chips most critical to our economic and national security. These are the chips that go into cars, medical devices, and many of our defense capabilities.