Can the Chips Act Put the U.S. Back in the Game?

The combined CHIP and Science Act, which allocates $52 billion for chipmakers building new factories in the United States, is designed to expand semiconductor production within the boundaries of the country, decreasing its vulnerability to supply chain disruptions like the car shortage that occurred during the pandemic.

But there was also an added urgency for the United States to expand domestic chip production as tensions have mounted in Asia, particularly between China and Taiwan. Heeding warnings that China is ramping up its capabilities to invade Taiwan, bolstering U.S. semiconductor manufacturing would help ensure American industries are not captive to China if it invades the island nation.

“The vulnerability to the U.S.—including to the U.S. military, as it is incredibly dependent upon advanced semiconductors—is just way too high,” said Robert Atkinson, founder and president of the science and technology policy think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “It was really, principally, a [national] defense move.”