After a sluggish start, the USD 52 billion from the US Chips Act has brought a lot of movement into the domestic industry and – in many cases only on paper so far – made multiple investments possible. In addition to many lighthouse projects such as completely new factories, this also includes suppliers.
It can already be seen as a success what the USA has achieved with its Chips Act, but of course also with foreign policy at the same time. On the one hand, packing China with restrictions and drawing the world's attention to the fact that one would like to have some domestic production again, ultimately played a not unimportant role in the considerations of some companies. And when the government then spends a lot of money in the form of subsidies, some manufacturers don't need to be asked twice.
Ultimately, the list of factory expansions or new buildings is impressive, but it is determined by the few large companies and their large sums: Intel with over 40 billion US dollars, TSMC with 40 billion US dollars, Micron with at least 35 billion US dollars -dollars, Texas Instruments another 39 billion US dollars. The bottom line is that together with other companies, around 190 billion US dollars are to be invested and almost 35,000 direct jobs created – many tens of thousands in the area usually follow.
New and expanded chip factories in the USA (Image: SIA)In the end, however, the list and the manufacturers mentioned with their investments are by no means set in stone. An example of this is Microchip, which is still running with a new fab building for 3 billion US dollars. However, the local press is already reporting that the project has been put on hold for the time being. Behind some others there are also more or less big question marks, what exactly is at the end of it will become clear in the coming years up to the year 2030.
Suppliers are catching up
The second part of the breakdown is also interesting. Because wherever new factories move, suppliers will follow. Well-known names such as ASML are among them, the largest project is global wafers with a large complex for the wafer blanks that everyone else needs. Arizona with already the first large and future Intel factories in addition to TSMC, which theoretically have space for even six phases on the new Fab 21, are dependent on the supply of countless things. The states of New York (Globalfoundries & Co) and Oregon (Intel) were also chosen as locations not by chance.
Extensions in the supplier area (image: SIA)