Published in News

Big Tech wants chip subsidies

by on12 May 2021


Direct more money to us, please 

Some of the world's biggest chip buyers, including Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet's Google, are joining top chip-makers such as Intel to create a new lobbying group to screw more cash from governments.

Basically, the idea is that if the world does not want a chip shortage or all the manufacturing to be done in the Far East, governments will have to divert money for welfare, defence and education into the rather large pockets of already profitable Big Tech companies.  

The newly formed Semiconductors in America Coalition, which also includes Amazon.com's Amazon Web Services, said Tuesday it has asked US lawmakers to provide funding for the CHIPS for America Act, for which President Joe Biden has asked Congress to provide $50 billion.

"Robust funding of the CHIPS Act would help America build the additional capacity necessary to have more resilient supply chains to ensure critical technologies will be there when we need them", the group said in a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders in both houses of the US Congress.

A global chip shortage has hit automakers hard, with Ford Motor saying it could halve second-quarter production. Automotive industry groups have pressed the Biden administration to secure chip supply for car factories. But Reuters last week reported administration officials were reluctant to use a national security law to redirect computer chips to automakers because doing so could hurt other industries.

The new coalition includes some of those other chip-consuming industries, with members such as AT&T, Cisco Systems, General Electric, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Verizon Communications. It cautioned against government actions to favour a single industry such as automakers.

 

Last modified on 12 May 2021
Rate this item
(0 votes)

Read more about: