Commerce Sec’y Raimondo: Semiconducter Supply Issues Will Be ‘a Little Bit Better’ over Next 6-9 Months, Will ‘Take Years’ to Completely Fix

On Wednesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated that the supply chain problems with semiconductors “could be with us for a while.” And that while “things are going to get a little bit better” over the next 6-9 months, it will “take years, really.”

Host Judy Woodruff asked, “Let me ask about another part of this supply and demand mismatch that we’re dealing with right now and a very big part of it, and that’s semiconductors. You’ve been very focused on that piece of the problem. These are the tiny computer chips that power everything from cars to smartphones to every imaginable kind of appliance. How long are those bottlenecks going to be with us?”

Raimondo answered, “They could be with us for a while. So, we are — things are going to get a little bit better over the course of the next six, nine months. But to really solve that problem, Judy, we need to make more chips in America. It’s very simple. We don’t make enough here in our country. So, right now, as part of the president’s package that he’s trying to get through Congress, is an investment of billions of dollars to incentivize companies to make semiconductors in America again. We founded the semiconductor industry in America, and now we make none of the world’s leading-edge chips in America. It’s mostly all in Taiwan.”

She later added, “I think you’ll start to see improvement next year. You know, this — it’ll take years, really. But into 2022, we will start to see relief in the semiconductor supply chain.”

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