Pirate's Cove

I’m not sure why the focus is on Trump: has he stated that he would stop the CHIPS Act? Making chips in the U.S. would seem something that Trump would want. But, you know, TDS

Raimondo’s new mission: Leave no cash for Trump

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is on an urgent mission: get as much high-tech spending out the door before Donald Trump takes office.

The Biden administration is aiming to commit nearly every unspent dollar in its $50 billion microchip-subsidy program before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January, an effort that would effectively cement a massive industrial legacy before the GOP can reverse course.

“I’d like to have really almost all of the money obligated by the time we leave,” Raimondo said in an interview with POLITICO. “That’s the goal, and I certainly want to have all the major announcements done as it relates to the big, leading-edge companies.” (snip)

The Chips money alone is a massive undertaking. Congress allocated $50 billion in subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. So far only two companies have received binding awards from the Department of Commerce’s manufacturing program. To hit her target, Raimondo still needs to nail down contracts with Intel, Micron, Samsung and SK hynix — multibillion-dollar deals that have, at times, been rocky and required renegotiations.

Raimondo said she recently directed staff to work through the weekend — and even made personal calls to tech CEOs — to speed the talks along.

Perhaps Raimondo should have thought about this beforehand. The CHIPS Act passed on August 9, 2022. What has she been doing since? It took them till February 2023 to listen to proposals. Wasn’t the whole point of the CHIPS Act to get manufacturing up quickly, since there was a big chip shortage worldwide post-COVID? Anyhow, nothing in that Politico piece says why they have to do this quickly Because Trump

Biden locks in $6.6B for TSMC chip factories, ensuring Trump can’t rescind CHIPS Act deal

The Biden administration has finalized a $6.6 billion award for the Taiwan semiconductor giant that is building massive factories in Phoenix, amid concerns President-elect Donald Trump will derail subsidies aimed at fostering the domestic chip industry.

“This is a gigantic announcement,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters on a call ahead of the announcement early Friday, 10 days after Trump’s election.

“This will be one of the most important investments that we make as a country to advance our economic and national security,” she said.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plans to invest $65 billion on three state-of-the-art fabrication plants, or fabs, that mean thousands of jobs in Arizona.

But

In June, Trump rattled investors when he accused Taiwan of stealing the U.S. chip industry and asserted the U.S. shouldn’t be “giving them billions of dollars to build chips.”

“That CHIPS deal is so bad,” he said Oct. 25 on the Joe Rogan podcast.

He wants the money to go to U.S. companies. But, also remember that Trump tends to rattle on. Rep Mike Johnson also mentioned repealing the CHIPS Act, but, he was quickly shot down, because it is a good thing.

Now, the question is, how many bad deals will Commerce make? Perhaps Raimondo should speak directly to Trump to ascertain his thoughts on this. Will his admin continue to make good deals on this? If so, slow down.