U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently pushed for Congress to green light $52 billion for an expansion to U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. The funding is the latest in an effort to address the ongoing chip shortage and strengthen the Michigan auto industry.
According to a report from Reuters, Raimondo addressed the chip shortage and related legislation after a recent trip to Michigan. During the trip, Raimondo visited with Michigan politicians and U.S. auto industry representatives, including the United Auto Workers labor union, as well as officials from General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, also known as the “Big Three” U.S. automakers.
The proposed legislation would authorize $52 billion for semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S., and $190 billion to bolster tech research. Raimondo said that the chip shortage would result in job losses in Michigan if it remained unaddressed.
In the meantime, Raimondo added that the United States Department of Commerce was pursuing strategies for “nearshoring” and “friendshoring” to help bolster available microchip supplies, integrating further chips into the supply chain.
According to United Auto Workers President Ray Curry, the chip shortage “at its core … is not to off-shore American jobs.” Curry added that semiconductor jobs should be brought back to the United States.
The new funding proposal follows widespread production cuts as automakers are forced to curb manufacturing and reduce the number of features available in response to the ongoing chip shortage. That includes General Motors, which recently announced that it would reduce the availability of heated seats in a long list of models across its lineup. In a follow-up, GM said that these features could be retrofitted in the future. General Motors also recently announced that it was developing its own family of microcontrollers to reduce the effects of a possible future chip shortage.
It’s expected that the current chip shortage will continue for at least another year. Demand is also expected to increase over time with an influx of new all-electric vehicles on the horizon, as well as the broader implementation of high-tech features.
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Comments
I’m beginning to wonder if there ever will be a good time to buy a car. In addition to all of the shortages, gas and electricity prices are likely to rise for different reasons. All I hope is gas prices don’t shoot up too much over the next 7 years or else cars purchased today will become prohibitively expensive.
Your so right, the biggest problem is if we had our pipe lines open and being built it would help. We were the leaders of fuel up till 10 months ago. Now we pray for help from people that want our money.
That’s cute that you have that belief. Sounds like propaganda orchestrated by the oil industry and given to select media outlets to give to the masses.
We were never “leaders of fuel” which is why we are not part of OPEC. We do have Wall Street though, and it works in conjunction… I mean speculate the price that you see per barrel.
Your beloved pipe line that certain media outlets pushes on (good advertisement revenue) will barely move the needle on the price of the pump. You’ll have better luck using a bucket to remove ocean water to lower sea-level rise than to follow big oil’s agenda.
Build them here and control your own supply.
Lack of inventory when passing dealers is eye opening.
Those mental midgets in Congress couldn’t tie their shoes, much less solve the chip shortage.
The chip industry is not going to be fixed by money. Look at the names on the people innovating in the industry. We need to start admiring scientists instead of porn stars. A group at Princeton (Yibin Kang) had a breakthru on cancer and how cancers spread. Yibin is from China. Has anyone else heard of him? Even if the guy gets a Nobel, his name will be forgotten that day. Meanwhile all eyeballs on the bachelor, dancing with the star, american idol, the football game. Remind me again, how much do we pay college football coaches? And do your kids know the coach names? And do your kids want to be a quarterback or cancer researcher, or physicist? Because until we change the mindset in the US that it is important to be a Sheldon Cooper, we better find a way to get the Sheldon’s from other countries to keep coming to the US en mass.
The asshats in DC will drag their feet on any proposed legislation to take our money out of the eager hands of other countries. It’s all about “appearances” and the constant fight to dominate the world, as long as we look good doing it!! There is absolutely no reason why silicon valley, or anywhere else in the country, hasn’t been building our own microchips and microprocessors instead of being forced to import them!! Instead of running around screaming EV for years. They should have been building plants to support the needs of the parts it requires!! All of this is orchestrated by DC and their trade deals. They intentionally bring the country to its knees. Then dream up a bill with so much money going to the crap they promised someone to get re-elected…and list the small amount actually needed to solve the problem THEY created to do it. It just infuriates the hell out of me that this is how our country is run!!
Those jobs should never have left our shores and $52 billion to bring them back seems a bit “politically enhanced”