US President Joe Biden speaks at the site of a future Taiwanese group TSMC semiconductor factory in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 6, 2022. (AFP/Brendan SMIALOWSKI)
“American industry is back!” US President Joe Biden on Tuesday celebrated in Arizona a gigantic investment by the Taiwanese group TSMC in a semiconductor factory.
“The United States is a privileged destination for companies that want to invest,” he said, against a background of giant cranes, and with the assistance of the gratin of tech – the boss of Apple Tim Cook, but also representatives of companies less known to the general public but extremely strategic like Micron, AMD or Nvidia.
TSMC, which had already decided to set up in Arizona, a state in the southwestern United States, in May 2020, during the Trump presidency, announced on Tuesday that it was giving its project a whole new dimension.
There will be two factories instead of just one, tripling the amount of the investment, which goes from 12 billion to 40 billion dollars. Production is supposed to start there by 2024 for the first, by 2026 for the second.
This announcement comes after more or less huge investment promises from other giants such as Micron, IBM, Intel and Samsung.
“I have never been so optimistic for the United States,” said Joe Biden, who repeats it over and over again. And the 80-year-old Democrat added, after a short pause: “And I’ve been around for a while.”
The US president said he was acting “without complex” to revive employment and industry in the United States.
Joe Biden visits the site of a future TSMC semiconductor factory in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 6, 2022. (AFP/Brendan SMIALOWSKI)
The White House sees TSMC’s announcement as a direct result of the CHIPS and Science Act, a law that provides nearly $53 billion for production and research in the microchip sector.
The displacement of Joe Biden, who maintains the suspense over a new candidacy for the presidential election, is also very political.
Arizona, a state long dominated by Republicans, has become a battleground where Democrats are regaining ground. The president on Tuesday sang the praises of future governor Katie Hobbs, elected in November against a representative of the radical right supported by Donald Trump.
He also praised the action of Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic state senator whose radically centrist position has sometimes given the White House a hard time.
– Reduce dependency –
Most of the United States’ semiconductor supply comes from companies located in allied countries in Asia, but the memory of the pandemic, which has upended supply chains, as well as geopolitical tensions around Taiwan , push Washington to reduce its dependence.
Not to mention Joe Biden’s stated desire to challenge China technologically.
“Virtually every big tech company, including auto companies and every company that uses technology, is worried that something is happening between Taiwan and China,” notes analyst Rob Enderle.
“So there is a massive rush to move manufacturing out of those two countries,” he adds.
A TSMC Group factory on March 25, 2021 in Taichung. (AFP/Archives/Sam Yeh)
Building a semiconductor site takes several years. But once TSMC’s two factories are up and running, they “could meet all of America’s demand for the most advanced chips,” said Ronnie Chatterji, deputy director of the National Economic Council for Industrial Policy.
If Joe Biden is a follower of an uninhibited economic patriotism – his initiatives moreover cause cringe among his European allies – he claims to approach the question differently from his predecessor Donald Trump, who had bet everything on tax cuts.
Sweeping away this “trickle down” approach, the Democrat relies instead on massive subsidy schemes to boost private investment.
Brian Deese, Joe Biden’s main economic adviser, however, assured that there were “strong conditions for the companies which will benefit from financing”, so that public money is well used in activities that ultimately benefit the economy. American.
© 2022 AFP
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