CHIPS Act: The Leading Edge Gap

With $52.7 billion slated for grants to support Sections 9902 through 9906 of the 2021 National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA), Washington faces daunting next steps to define and execute on a CHIPS Act program to move the U.S. semiconductor industry toward domestic chip supply chain resiliency and manufacturing and technology leadership over the next five years.

With the growing tensions across the Taiwan Strait, the timeline for achieving domestic supply chain resiliency seems to be increasingly urgent. This is especially true for leading-edge manufacturing as the U.S. continues to trail  Asia. There are nontrivial risks that need to be addressed for Washington’s near- and long-term promises for the CHIPS Act to be realized.

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CHIPS Act: A Vital First Step

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, signed Tuesday by President Biden, includes the stated purpose of challenging China’s pursuit of technological and manufacturing leadership in the global semiconductor industry. The bill easily passed both the Senate (64-33) and the House (243-187) with bipartisan support in both houses.

While the passage of the CHIPS Act is a historic achievement that directly addresses the need for chip supply chain resilience add capacity in the U.S., it is also a timely and important commitment to a much longer and comprehensive policy effort to ensure long-term U.S. technology and market share leadership in the vital semiconductor industry.

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Nvidia + Arm makes a tough pill to swallow: Lee

On December 2nd, 2021, the FTC announced that it would move to block Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm Holding. This most recent complaint has become another link in a global chain of regulatory legal challenges and reviews that could sink Nvidia’s $40 billion bid first announced on Sept. 13,  2020.

The deal was bound to be a tough one to close from the outset as marquee Arm licensees such as Qualcomm, Alphabet, and Microsoft protested the union. However, Nvidia did manage to muster public support from Mediatek, Marvell, and Broadcom support for the transaction shortly after.

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IAA Mobility 2021: Key Takeaways

event featured the heavyweights in the semiconductor industry on the main stage of IAA Mobility, most notably, Cristano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm and Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel. Both business leaders presented back-to-back keynotes that offered common and divergent perspectives on the role of silicon and connectivity in the future of the car. Collectively, Cristano and Pat outlined an ambitious future for the car founded on the projection of digital technologies of the data center and smartphone on the automobile.

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The US-China Tech War: Technology and Digital Economic Leadership at the Crossroads

Last week, the US Senate passed the USICA (The United States Innovation and Competition Act) which includes the CHIPS for America Act. Despite what the title of the USICA and its sub articles might suggest, the policy is largely a manifesto for dealing with a rising and highly competitive China with particular concern for the Western rival’s ambition to achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency and Huawei’s ascension as the leading 5G technology vendor. The Act presents several concrete policy measures to diminish China’s access to US semiconductor technologies and 52 billion USD in federal funding to build a more resilient semiconductor supply chain. But will these policies help the US achieve what the title of the USICA suggest; improve US semiconductor supply chain resiliency and competitiveness in 5G? Will it stop the technological advancement of China and its digital economy long enough for the West to tame it? 

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