5G and the CHIPS act: What's happening?

The CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022, is supposed to promote investment in chip manufacturing plants, help ease supply chain woes and bring skilled manufacturing jobs back to the United States. 5G wireless chips will be part of that wider picture. Doug Kirkpatrick, former chief scientist at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said, “There has been a general concern that the United States is falling behind in terms of chip production and technology. What you’re seeing in the CHIPS act today is really a manifestation of a very classic DARPA approach to how you would solve that kind of problem.” Kirkpatrick said that people often ask: “We have this huge investment in the CHIPS act, why aren’t we already reclaiming everything from China?” “It’s going to take some time,” he said. There’s been a poor job of setting expectations, and there needs to be a recognition that this is something that's going to push on for the next decade.