Biden Announced the Recovery of High-Tech Manufacturing in the U.S.

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he will restore manufacturing in the United States, speaking at the construction site of a giant semiconductor manufacturing plant. The purpose of the facility is to eliminate the U.S.’s risky dependence on foreign manufacturers of vital technology components.

“American manufacturing is coming back,” Biden said, speaking at the plant in Phoenix, Arizona, accompanied by high-profile political allies and business leaders, including Apple chief Tim Cook and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra.

The project by Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest manufacturer of advanced microchips, will go a long way toward achieving its goal of ending dependence on overseas factories, especially those in Taiwan, which is under constant threat of takeover or even invasion by China.

TSMC has announced it will complete construction of its second Phoenix plant by 2026, increasing its investment in Arizona from $12 billion to $40 billion and planning to produce about 600,000 microchips a year.

About 10,000 high-tech jobs will be created once both plants are up and running, the company said.

Brian Deese, head of the White House National Economic Council, said the “major milestone” was one of the largest foreign direct investments in U.S. history, and TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said it was “a giant step forward that will help create a vibrant semiconductor ecosystem in the United States.”

Biden pointed to the effect of the Semiconductor Act he signed into law, which has provided nearly $53 billion for subsidies and research in the sector.

Most of the current U.S. supply of microchips comes from overseas. Although the companies are mostly located in Asian countries that are reliable American allies, the vast distances and especially the geopolitical tensions around Taiwan make Washington and big companies like Apple nervous.

Miniature, sophisticated microchips are at the core of almost every modern device, vehicle and advanced weaponry.

TSMC’s new factory will produce state-of-the-art 3-nanometer microchips, and the current Arizona plant will begin reducing the size of its current 5-nanometer microchips to more sophisticated 4-nanometer ones.

Biden mentioned the investment made by TSMC in the broader context of the U.S. manufacturing revival, which has been a key theme of his presidency.

“More than 30 years ago, America accounted for more than 30 percent of global semiconductor production. And then something happened,” he said. – American manufacturing, the backbone of our economy, began to dry up. Companies moved jobs overseas. Today we produce only about 10 percent of the world’s chips, even though we lead in research and development.”