As Congress considers broad steps to advance America’s competitiveness and restore its semiconductor leadership, the Co-Chairmen of the American Semiconductor Center, a new project of SAFE Commanding Heights, urged congressional leaders to act quickly on crucial semiconductor funding.
Co-Chairs Michael Splinter, former Chairman and CEO of Applied Materials, and Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, USN (Ret.), former Chief of Naval of Operations, highlighted the recent Commerce Department report that revealed alarming declines in U.S. chip inventories and concluded, “America needs to produce more semiconductors.”
While “both the United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the America COMPETES legislation contain important provisions to restore America’s competitive position globally, and particularly with respect to the People’s Republic of China,” Splinter and Greenert urged Congress to focus on provisions to:
- Provide full funding for the CHIPS Act.
- Ensure funds are available to companies from America’s friends and allies, so they can build manufacturing capacity in the U.S. while creating good, high-paying jobs for Americans.
- Boost the fabless-foundry model that drives innovation and produces the vast majority of the world’s leading-edge chips.
- Accelerate the shift from legacy chips—in particular, for military, automotive, and industrial use—to true 21st century capabilities, 28 nm nodes and below.
- Draw on lessons from the Operation Warp Speed vaccine effort to streamline processes and accelerate outcomes for semiconductors.
Read the letters here.