President Joe Biden said the U.S. should invest in its semiconductor infrastructure to address the current chip shortage, NBC News reported Tuesday.
“These chips, these wafers … batteries, broadband — it’s all infrastructure. We need to build the infrastructure of today and not repair the one of yesterday,” Biden said Monday during the CEO Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chain Resilience. “The plan I propose will protect our supply chain and revitalize American manufacturing.”
White House officials held a virtual meeting with approximately 20 CEOs from the auto industry and technology firms, including chief executives Jim Farley of Ford (NYSE: F), Mary Barra of General Motors (NYSE: GM), Carlos Tavares of Stellantis, Pat Gelsinger of Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Sundar Pichai of Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL) and representatives from HP (NYSE: HPQ), Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a press briefing the president wanted to be “part of the discussion on how to surmount the problem” and “to hear directly from companies about the impacts and what would help the most.”
Industry leaders discussed with White House officials short- and long-term measures to address the chip shortage and the need to improve transparency in the supply chain, enhance demand forecasting to mitigate future crises and encourage additional chip manufacturing capacity in the U.S., according to a White House readout of the virtual summit.
They also talked about the proposed infrastructure investments in the potential $2 trillion American Jobs Plan unveiled in March. The plan would earmark $50 billion for semiconductor manufacturing and research efforts.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo participated in the event.
