US Govt Outlines Plans to Regain Semiconductor Lead by 2030

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When U.S. legislators proposed the CHIPS and Science act a couple of years ago, they set a rather vague goal to significantly increase domestic chip production by building new fabs. However, the U.S. government will set the wheels in motion next month by accepting applications for semiconductor projects. And this week, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo outlined the ambitious goals that the country has in mind with its CHIPS and Science initiative.

The Biden administration hopes that by 2030, the U.S. will develop and produce the world's most advanced chips on its shores. To bring the industry's most sophisticated process technologies to America, the U.S. government expects at least two new large-scale clusters of leading-edge logic fabs to emerge. Both should have a strong supplier ecosystem, specialized infrastructure, and R&D operations.

Also, the government expects chipmakers to deploy high-volume advanced chip packaging facilities in the U.S.

Both goals are achievable as Intel, TSMC, and Samsung Foundry are building advanced chip fabs in the U.S. Intel is also building up an all-new campus in Ohio that will include leading-edge fabs and advanced packaging facilities. While TSMC is expected to keep its most sophisticated nodes in Taiwan for the next few years, as its campus in Arizona expands (and it is rumored to include advanced packaging operations over time), it may start making chips on leading-edge nodes there as well. The same applies to Samsung Foundry's Taylor, Texas fab, which used to make its most advanced chips in Texas.

In addition to the world's most advanced logic and packaging facilities, the U.S. government wants the country to produce advanced memory chips 'on economically competitive terms, which Micron expects to achieve. It just so happens that Micron plans to deploy two new major memory fabs in the U.S. — in Idaho and Ohio — by the end of the decade.

Also, the American government wants chipmakers to expand production capacity for the current-generation and mature-node chips most critical to the country's economic and national security.

"I want the United States to be the only country in the world where every company capable of producing leading-edge chips will have a significant R&D and high-volume manufacturing presence," said Raimondo. "Now, achieving these goals won't be easy. We are ambitious, but we are not naïve."

Next week a special jury will begin to consider applications by various parties to receive funds and other incentives to build and develop chips in the USA.

$39 billion is allocated for manufacturing incentives, while another $11 billion will be invested to build a strong semiconductor R&D ecosystem.