The United States government has recently approved a new act called the CHIPS Act to provide processing chip component manufacturing companies in the United States with $52 billion (~RM231 billion) in funds to boost the sector in the country.
With the funds, it is expected that companies such as Intel will begin developing semiconductor chip manufacturing plants in the United States, with Intel having previously confirmed that they will develop a plant in Fort Worth, Texas.
Previously, countries such as China, Taiwan and Korea were seen as the countries that developed the largest chip components in the world, from processing chips, to memory, storage and other integrated chips. The pre-COVID era of globalization meant that these components simply needed to be delivered to technology, automotive and other companies quickly and easily.
The COVID-19 pandemic that is still plaguing the world shows how difficult it is to get a supply of electronic components when logistics issues become a big problem. Because of this, the CHIPS Act was enacted to ensure that the United States is not so dependent on the production of components in other countries.
One of the constraints that causes companies such as Intel, TSMC, Samsung and others not to develop their processing chip factories in the United States is because of the very expensive development and operation costs in the country.
With these tens of billions of subsidies, it is expected that they are more likely to develop new factories in the country, and directly reduce the price tag of these components, and is expected to lower the price of hardware, devices and electronic accessories hereafter.