Biden Signs Long-Awaited CHIPS Bill Into Law
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden Tuesday signed the long-awaited CHIPS bill investing $280 billion in tech manufacturing.
The bill seeks to subsidize the domestic production of semiconductor chips — the electronic circuit boards found in nearly every tech product from phones to computers, cars to much more. The $52 million investment in their manufacturing comes after decades of decline for the industry, founded in the U.S., at a time when more and more items need the chips.
The legislation also pours money into research and development of chips and other high-tech equipment.
“The CHIPS and Science Act is going to inspire a whole new generation of Americans to answer that question: What next?” Biden said during the signing ceremony. “Decades from now, people will look back at this week and all we passed and all we moved on, that we met the moment at this inflection point in history.”
The legislation was more than a year in the making. There were multiple iterations of the bipartisan legislation which seeks to pour government funding into domestic production to better compete with foreign adversaries like China.
Congress came to a bipartisan agreement on the bipartisan bill in July with a 64-33 vote in the Senate and 243-187 vote in the House.
The investment is not only a boost to national security interests because semiconductor chips are in military equipment, but the entire economy which has become more dependent on semiconductor chips.
“We’re going to construct an entire semiconductor ecosystem right here in the United States of America. That means creating hundreds of thousands of high-quality, high-paying manufacturing jobs in the United States of America. It means unleashing the next generation of American innovation. It means building more secure supply chains and protecting Americans’ global leadership and values for decades and generations to come,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
As the legislation passed multiple tech companies announced investments into their manufacturing to coincide with the government investment.
At the ceremony Joshua Aviv, founder and CEO of the portable electric car charger company SparkCharge, announced that his company will double its manufacturing facility in the next few months.
“This new law, the CHIPS and Science Act, gives people like me a chance, an opportunity to build and grow our businesses and be proud of what we do. To be proud of our country,” Aviv said as he introduced Biden.
The White House also announced multi-billion dollar domestic investments from the chip manufacturers Micron and Qualcomm and GlobalFoundries at $40 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively. They will each be eligible for the 25% investment tax credit for chip plants included in the legislation.
“The future is going to be made in America,” Biden said.
Madeline can be reached at [email protected]
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