Potential US semiconductor manufacturing boom complicated by Trump's economic policies

SARAH PARVINI

Thu, May 15, 2025, 7:02 AM 6 min read

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Before “America First” became the Trump administration’s mandate for overseas argumentation and trade, 1 assemblage was already moving to bring concern backmost to the United States: the semiconductor industry.

Aided by authorities incentives, American and overseas tech companies alike person invested hundreds of billions of dollars to bolstering semiconductor operations — probe and development, manufacturing and installation modernization — crossed the state successful caller years.

In fewer places is the maturation of the U.S. semiconductor manufacture clearer than successful the Greater Sacramento region, wherever tech leaders and lawmakers have, for years, sought to turn California’s relation successful producing the chips that powerfulness mundane necessities similar cars, refrigerators and smartphones. Semiconductor giants clustered successful cities conscionable extracurricular Silicon Valley — Intel, AMD, Bosch, Samsung and Micron — are gathering connected a tech foothold Intel archetypal established erstwhile it opened its Sacramento-County field successful 1984.

But President Donald Trump’s economical policies person analyzable that maturation arsenic the medication takes its adjacent steps toward imposing much tariffs connected cardinal imports and launching investigations into imports of machine chips and chip-making instrumentality — each astatine a clip erstwhile deeper semiconductor investments were conscionable starting to person a affirmative interaction connected changing proviso chains. New tariffs, paired with the administration’s threats against the CHIPS and Science Act, could dramatically dilatory its extremity of ensuring the U.S. maintains a competitory borderline successful artificial quality development.

“You’re starting to spot immoderate of it now. Samsung announced a hold successful the fabs successful Texas,” said Mario Morales, an expert with the International Data Corp. “That installation was expected to travel online successful 2024 present it’s being delayed to 2028. I deliberation immoderate of these companies are delaying it due to the fact that they present cognize that they’re not going to apt get funding, oregon due to the fact that of the uncertainty astir the acts that we’re seeing astir the caller commercialized policy.”

Although the U.S. is simply a large shaper of definite types of semiconductor chips, the nation's stock of planetary spot accumulation — measured by measurement and not dollar worth — fell from 37% successful 1990 to conscionable 10% successful 2022, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. As a result, the state relies heavy connected imports from Taiwan and South Korea for precocious chips.

Major manufacturers similar Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. are investing to physique up U.S. facilities, partially owed to incentives enactment successful spot during erstwhile President Joe Biden’s clip successful office. The CHIPS Act, a instrumentality passed successful 2022 with bipartisan support, was designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing portion sharpening the U.S. borderline successful subject exertion and minimizing aboriginal proviso concatenation disruptions.