shades fills you in

In July 2022, Congress passed the Bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. The idea is to make the U.S. more competitive with Asia -- especially China -- in semiconductor manufacturing

Some background: The Semiconductor Industry Association says the U.S. made 37% of the world’s semiconductors in 1990. Now that number is down to 12%. It’s much worse for the most advanced logic semiconductors -- 100% of those are made overseas

Wired says another reason for the act was the global chip shortage

China obviously isn’t a fan. It says the Chips Act will distort the market and mess up the global semiconductor supply chain

Taiwan, on the other hand, is not so worried. It says the act won’t topple it as the world’s top chip maker. It’s also happy that they can get funds for new plants in the U.S. under the CHIPS Act

The NYT says the act won’t give companies a blank check. For example, chip makers that want federal money aren’t allowed to make new, high-tech investments in China for at least 10 years

But some Republican senators, like Marco Rubio, say this bill doesn’t do nearly enough to protect American IP and prevent the act’s funds from flowing to China

The Dispatch thinks the bill has its flaws but is still a really good start. The U.S. just doesn’t have the power (yet!) to demand that chip companies halt all investment in China. So this is a good first step

Barron’s says the Chips Act will help, but it’s not a game changer. $50 billion over 5 years just isn’t that much money

Fortune agrees: To make the U.S. competitive with Asia, we need to spend hundreds of billions. And even then it’ll still take decades

The Heritage Foundation is at the very opposite end: Big spending bills won’t make us more competitive with China. This bill is just more big government interference with economic freedom!

And Bloomberg says this bill isn’t targeted. It mostly benefits U.S. companies with older technology -- like Intel and Texas Instruments. What about our true chip innovators, like Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Broadcom?

Politico says more money for U.S. chipmaking is all well and good. But no matter how much we spend, we still need some serious immigration to bring in the high-skilled workers