Chips and Science Act

G. Dan Hutcheson

The Chip Insider®

What’s Happening and What’s the Meaning: Chips and Science Act Passed:

I must admit, I had been saying I didn’t expect the US Congress to get its act together and pass this bill. You’ll recall that the $52B CHIPS act pretty much died. I believe, but can’t prove it, Congress was busy playing the violin Andy Grove had sent Michael Boskin – the White House economist who said something along the lines of there not being a real economic difference between computer chips and potato chips. Grove was too polite to ever make this public, leaving it to only be known by a few insiders. What I believe was different this time, can’t prove, is that two executives made the difference. Stephanie Powers once said, “Unfortunately, sometimes people don't hear you until you scream.” Essentially what Pat Gelsinger and Tom Caulfield did was scream with lost jobs and infrastructure.

By the way, what passed was not the CHIPS act, but the lowercase Chips and Science Act. It is substantially different, upping funding to $280B. $52.7B is going to direct financing of new and expanded chip manufacturing factories. Now the battle starts over who gets the real money.

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind” — Henry Ford

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