President Joe Biden said Friday at a ceremony to break ground on a semi-conductor plant that making sophisticated computer chips is an issue of US national security in the face of an assertive China.
“All of this is in our economic interest, and it’s in our national security interest as well,” Biden said at the site where Intel plans to build a $20 billion factory.
Biden made the trip to highlight recent legislation passed at his behest setting aside $52 billion to boost US semiconductor production. He said the initiative was part of the broader rivalry between the United States and China.
Although the passing of the CHIPS act has been seen as positive, expecting the bill to resolve the ongoing global semiconductor chip shortage are likely to be left disappointed, according to Goldman Sachs analysts. https://t.co/Nab8em2JOb
— Ray Zinn (@Ray_Zinn_) September 9, 2022
“It’s no wonder… that the Chinese Communist Party actively lobbied US business against this law,” Biden said, with heavy machinery looming in the background.
Biden said the US will need state-of-the-art engineering “for the weapon systems of the future that are only going to be more reliant on computer chips.”
“Unfortunately, we produce zero, zero of these advanced chips in America,” Biden said.
Biden’s visit here also had a political component as the US midterm elections of November approach.
Read more: US Senate passes bill to counter China in chip production
Ohio is a Rust Belt state where blue collar factory workers historically tended to vote Democrat but turned to the Republican Party and Donald Trump as industries died out and workers felt left out by globalization.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk