Speaking at Fortune's technology brainstorming conference on Wednesday, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said the US government should invest more in US chipmakers rather than Asian counterparts such as TSMC and Samsung.
Previously, the White House proposed to provide $52 billion in earmarked aid to semiconductor manufacturers, namely the CHIPS Act. At present, the "CHIPS Act" has been incorporated into the "Defense Authorization Act" worth 190 billion US dollars passed by the Senate in June. But the bill has stalled in the House of Representatives, which is working on its own version of the bill.
Intel is also pushing hard for the CHIPS bill, and Gelsinger said he hopes Congress will pass the bill by the end of this month and get subsidies as soon as possible. In September, Intel broke ground on two chip plants in Arizona, an investment the company said was worth $20 billion.
Samsung Electronics announced last week that it would invest $17 billion in a new advanced chip plant in Taylor, Texas. Earlier, TSMC announced in June that it had begun building a $12 billion chip plant in Arizona. Both can benefit from the CHIPS Act.
Gelsinger said that government legislation supporting the semiconductor industry "will certainly subsidize Samsung and TSMC", but more investment is needed in American companies such as Micron, Texas Instruments and Intel, because "this is the area of intellectual property in the United States." local companies can give the United States more control over intellectual property.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger
Gelsinger believes that while bringing TSMC and Samsung factories to the US can reduce some geopolitical risks, investing in domestic chipmakers has greater benefits. "do you want to have intellectual property rights, research and development and related tax sources, or do you want these things to be given to Asia?"
Intel is committed to becoming a "semiconductor manufacturing" company-a company that both designs and manufactures chips. (Fabless), a fabless semiconductor like AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm, specializes in chip circuit design.
At present, the chip manufacturing industry leaders are TSMC and Samsung. According to Statista, TSMC accounts for 52.9% of the global contract manufacturing market, while Samsung's share is 17.3%.
For Intel, government subsidies are crucial in the competition with TSMC and Samsung. "they can get 30% of the subsidies in Asia. How can Intel compete with them in this case?"
