The chief executives of Intel and Micron will testify on March 23 before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee as the industry and lawmakers make the case for $52 billion in U.S. subsidies for semiconductor chips manufacturing.
The hearing will look into the vulnerabilities in semiconductor supply chains, and the industry’s link with American competitiveness. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell announced the hearing on Wednesday. The CEO of truckmaker Paccar will also testify at the hearing.
Last week, President Joe Biden met with executives of chipmakers including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Micron Technology Inc and other companies as part of an effort to push the U.S. Congress to fund subsidies to chipmakers to ease the semiconductor crunch.
Last year, the Senate and the House approved $52 billion in subsidies in separate bills. And critics of the bills have questioned why Congress should give subsidies to a profitable industry.
But the bills are intended to address U.S. competitiveness against China on a variety of issues, including bilateral trade. The U.S. chip production has fallen in the last two decades to from 40% to only 12% of global production, according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
And the persistent industry-wide shortage of semiconductors has disrupted automotive and electronics industries, forcing some firms to scale back production.
Cantwell said it was urgent to act, noting the chip shortage cost the global auto industry an estimated $210 billion in revenue in 2021 and a loss of production of 7.7 million cars.
"It's 30% to 50% cheaper to build a semiconductor foundry in Asia than in the United States, mostly because of foreign government investment... We can't wait," she said.
In January, Intel said it would invest up to $100 billion to build potentially the world's largest chip-making complex in Ohio.
In October, Micron said it would spend $150 billion over the next decade globally on leading-edge memory chips manufacturing and research and development. Micron said funding from Congress "would open the door to new industry investments."
(With inputs from Agencies)
