The US needs “robust partnership” between top universities and private industry as it works to beef up domestic semiconductor-manufacturing capacity, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.
We really have to just get a lot more serious about it, and also develop new pipelines,” Ms Raimondo said. “The forecasts are that we’ll be about 100,000 semiconductor technicians short in the next handful of years, if we don’t do something differently. That’s a huge problem. It’s also an opportunity.”
Ms Raimondo spoke in Washington at an event organised by Purdue University and industry groups to highlight federal investments in the semiconductor industry. Ms Raimondo’s department is leading the way in investing about $52bn into the US semiconductor industry, which she frames as a key national-security resource.
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In a bid to bolster US technological competitiveness, the US last year enacted the Chips and Science Act to facilitate the development of semiconductor manufacturing hubs across the US and preserve the country’s technological supremacy while countering challenges from China.
The Biden administration opened applications for the manufacturing part of the funding under the act at the end of February. Congress passed the law last year after pandemic lockdowns and supply-chain disruption laid bare US reliance on chips from Asia and particularly Taiwan, the target of frequent threats from Beijing.
The event was attended by about a hundred representatives from the industry, including Thomas Sonderman, president and chief executive officer of SkyWater Technology, and top executives from Micron Technology, Intel and Applied Materials. Much of the discussion was about the need to train workers to meet new demands.
“Frankly, the thing that worries us most is workforce development,” Mr Sonderman said. “If we don’t have people to get excited like we all did when we joined this industry, then it won’t succeed.”