The US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, has advocated for a second CHIPS and Science Act to position the the country as a world leader in semiconductor manufacturing. 

Speaking at an Intel event, Raimondo suggested that Intel should anticipate further funding from the current CHIPS and Science Act. 

“I suspect there will have to be, what do you call it, CHIPS Two or some sort of continued investment if we want to lead the world,” Raimondo said. 

The current US CHIPS and Science Act was passed in 2022 and is intended to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing. The Act has provided $52bn towards US semiconductor research and development.

Following this Act, the US has also implemented trade restrictions on China’s tech industry, resulting in a blanket ban on investment in Chinese semiconductor technology companies in August 2023. 

However, Raimondo clarified that a second CHIPS and Science Act would not be an attempt to solely rely on US companies and supply chains. 

“To be clear, we can’t and do not want to make everything in America. We don’t want to make every chip in America. That isn’t a reasonable goal. But we do need to diversify our semiconductor supply chains and have much more manufacturing in the United States,” she said.

Raimondo also stated that AI was the main motivation behind US attempts to increase its semiconductor manufacturing. 

In its 2023 technology sentiment surveys, research and analysis company GlobalData found that AI was consistently named as the most disruptive technology to businesses across sectors. 

By 2030, GlobalData forecast that the global AI market will be worth over $909bn, having achieved a CAGR of 35% between 2022 and 2030. 

AI poses a disruption to every industry worldwide and GlobalData predicts that the country that leads in AI development will lead a fourth industrial revolution. Both the US and China have ambitions to take that lead, making geopolitical tensions a major concern in global semiconductor supply chains.