The Biden administration is providing $162 million to Microchip Technology to support the domestic production of computer chips — the second funding announcement tied to a 2022 law designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.
The incentives include $90 million to improve a plant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and $72 million to expand a factory in Gresham, Oregon, the Commerce Department said. The investments would enable Microchip Technology to triple its domestic production and reduce its dependence on foreign factories.
Much of the money would fund the making of microcontrollers, which are used by the military as well as in autos, household appliances and medical devices. Government officials said they expected the investments to create 700 construction and manufacturing jobs over the next decade.
I responded to the post above. I hope you take a moment to read it.
But as to Huawei, they’re not a government controlled organization nor were they chosen to be the winner by the government as much as the US would try to claim otherwise. Instead the Chinese government shotgunned hundreds of billions of dollars to the entirety of the chip industry. And here’s the most important part, thousands of chip companies collapsed last year in China. Those that could compete in the free market survived, those that didn’t went under. Huawei was one that survived, but stands upon the corpses of thousands of companies.
Even with outcomes as positive as they have been for the whole of the Chinese chip market, there was incredible equity loss to accomplish this. That said, for China, better to have done this and lost hundreds of billions and catch up, than it was to languish against the US.
So, it’s in my opinion that 1. the 50 billion the US is putting into this is way too small and 2. it’s clear now that Biden is picking winners and losers. If you read my previous post you’ll understand why this is incredibly bad and concerning.