Vice President Kamala Harris has announced that the US government will award $1.5 billion to expand semiconductor production. You can read the briefing-room official statement here.
US-based GlobalFoundries (GFS.O), the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, will receive $1.5 billion to expand semiconductor production. On Monday, the Biden administration announced the decision, highlighting the need to “make progress on global supply chain challenges” and “secure domestic supply chains.”
The company will build a new semiconductor production facility in Malta, New York, while also expanding existing operations there and in Burlington, Vermont, as laid out in an initial agreement with the Commerce Department.
This is part of a long-standing push from the US government to strengthen US production of semiconductors and reduce reliance on imports from China.
“This investment will also create more than 10,000 good jobs over the next decade, including many union construction jobs that pay fair wages and offer benefits like child care services,” the Vice President said in a statement. “Additionally, the domestic production of these chips will provide more supply chain stability to the auto and aerospace industries across the United States that currently rely on the shipment of these chips from overseas.”
What do semiconductors do?
The tiny chips are primarily used in satellite and space communications and the defense industry. Everyday uses for semiconductors also include blind spot and collision detection in cars and EVs and cellular and wifi connections in smartphones and other connected devices. All in all, they are incredibly common and vital for many everyday technologies.
In addition, the new GFS.O facility in Malta will produce a specific type of chip not currently made elsewhere in the country. In Burlington, the production will focus on high-volume production of next-generation gallium nitride on silicon semiconductors to be used in electric vehicles, the power grid, and smartphones, according to a statement from Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo at a press briefing, as reported by Reuters.
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