(Bloomberg) — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that with legislation to bolster the domestic semiconductor industry now enacted, US states should be prepared to contend with one another to lure companies and investment.
“This is a race,” she said after an event at an Arizona State University research park in Tempe. “It’ll be competitive. It’ll be transparent and I hope every state competes.”
Raimondo had been touring a university microchip manufacturing facility with Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat who’s running for re-election.
“Every state ought to put their best foot forward,” Raimondo said. “Every governor, every state legislature, every president of public universities in every state ought to be now putting their plan of attack together. And of course, this is going to be a competitive process.”
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden signed into law a broad competition bill that included about $52 billion to strengthen US semiconductor research and development, calling it a “once-in-a-generation investment in America itself.”
The chips bill lies at the center of the administration’s effort to reduce dependence on Asian suppliers like Taiwan and South Korea, whose homegrown companies are leading the market, and to address supply-chain disruptions and resulting price increases for certain goods containing semiconductors.
Biden’s team and lawmakers stressed the national security implications of the measure, saying it was vital to competing with and countering China.
Spurred by its passage after a year of congressional wrangling, US semiconductor companies are planning billions of dollars in new investments.
At a roundtable in Tempe with business executives and economic development leaders, Raimondo’s questions focused on how companies and universities intend to create a pipeline of workers to grow the semiconductor industry and construct new facilities in the US.
She said semiconductor and building trade jobs go overwhelmingly to White men and that diversity is a concern. “This is something that we all really have to commit ourselves to,” Raimondo said.
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