President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, March 4, that lawmakers should repeal a 2022 law that provides $52.7 billion in subsidies to U.S. semiconductor chip manufacturers, and instead use the money to pay down debt, Reuters reported.
"Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn't mean a thing. They take our money and they don't spend it. You should get rid of the CHIPS Act and whatever is left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt," Trump said.
The "Chips and Science Act," signed into law in August 2022 by then-US President Joe Biden, provided $39 billion in subsidies for US semiconductor and component manufacturing, as well as $75 billion in government loans. Donald Trump argues that the government should not provide funding to manufacturers, and that tariffs will be enough to force them to open factories in the US.
During the first signing, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo convinced the world’s largest chipmakers to open their factories in the country with government grants. As part of these deals, the Biden administration managed to provide Intel with $7.9 billion, TSMC with $6.6 billion, Micron with $6.1 billion, and Samsung with $4.7 billion.
TSMC previously announced its intention to invest $100 billion to build five factories in the United States, despite the fact that the Taiwanese themselves, where the company comes from, do not support moving production to another country.