As Washington debates spending $52 billion to start regaining America’s former role as a leading semiconductor manufacturer, experts say the public and private cost over the next two decades may exceed 10 times that much — and some worry such spending may still not achieve the goal.
On Friday, the House passed the measure to appropriate the $52 billion in subsidies over five years, largely for grants to catalyze private companies’ construction on U.S. soil of semiconductor fabrication factories, which are known as fabs. The Senate passed a similar bill last year. With President Joe Biden supporting the measure, some version of it may soon become law.
Some conservatives take issue with elements of the bill’s semiconductor section and with other parts of the nearly 3,000-page House version. And others reject the very notion of such massive aid to private industry. But most members of Congress believe the spending is needed to ensure that the United States is not overly reliant on vulnerable overseas supplies of components that are nearly as critical as energy to both the global economy and U.S. national security.
