High-Tech Executives Hail Signing Of $280B CHIPS Act

President Biden says the CHIPS Act is a way to put the nation’s semiconductor industry back on top and is a ‘once-in-a-generation investment in America itself.’

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger (right) speaks with U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) before a bill signing ceremony Tuesday for the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act at the White House. (Courtesy: Intel Corp)

As executives from Intel, Micron Technology, IBM, Lockheed Martin, HP and AMD looked on, President Biden signed a $280 billion bipartisan bill to boost domestic high-tech manufacturing.

“The future is going to be made in America,” said Biden, calling the measure “a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself.”

The president hailed CHIPS as a way to put the nation’s semiconductor industry back on top. He said while the U.S. invented the semiconductor chip that manufacturers rely on, today they must depend on chips from around the world.

That’s something, he said, that jeopardizes the U.S. economy and national security.

The measure will inject $52 billion in subsidies and tax credits into chip manufacturing and research and $170 billion into innovation and space exploration.

[RELATED STORY: INTEL FIGHTS BACK: CHIPS ACT WILL BENEFIT THE US SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY]

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who has been the public face for support of the measure despite critics, praised the signing of the act.

Today #CHIPSAct funding signed into law. Thank you @POTUS, @GinaRaimondo, all bipartisan leaders in Congress & everybody involved in supporting the semiconductor industry. We look forward to working w/ Department of Commerce on the implementation of this important initiative!

— Pat Gelsinger (@PGelsinger) August 9, 2022

IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna also tweeted following President Biden signing the CHIPS and Science Act into law:

I was honored to join @POTUS as he signed the historic CHIPS and Science Act, which brought together bipartisan policymakers and industry representatives alike. @IBM is ready to rapidly accelerate domestic #semiconductor innovation. Read my statement: https://t.co/iDwZcZq4Xm pic.twitter.com/IdviR9iRj8

— Arvind Krishna (@ArvindKrishna) August 9, 2022

Following the signing, Micron Technology announced plans to invest $40 billion through 2029 to build memory manufacturing in multiple phases in the U.S.

Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said the investment was made possible by the anticipated grants and credits from the CHIPS Act.

“This legislation will enable Micron to grow domestic production of memory from less than 2 percent to up to 10 percent of the global market in the next decade, making the U.S. home to the most advanced memory manufacturing and R&D in the world,” he said in a statement.

Kent Tibbils, vice president of marketing at ASI, a Fremont, Calif.-based national distributor of IT hardware and software products, said the bill will address supply chain issues as well.

“I think it’s good news for everybody,” he told CRN.

Tibbils said one of the hidden gems of the legislation is that it will boost production of integrated circuits.

“These are the kind of components that manufacturers typically don’t invest in because they don’t make a lot of money,” he said. “A lot of the supply shortages that have been happening was because of limited capacity in that area.”