Khanna: Even with CHIPS Act, ‘A Lot of’ Chips for Cars, Appliances ‘Being Produced in China or Offshore’

During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) stated that even though there are incentives to produce chips in the United States under the CHIPS and Science Act that he co-wrote, “a lot of the legacy chips, the chips that actually go into your cars, dishwashers, refrigerators, those are still being produced in China or offshore.”

Host Ailsa Chang asked, [relevant exchange begins around 3:10] “Now, President Biden has made it very, very clear that he wants to significantly boost the semiconductor industry here in the U.S. So, can you tell us why Taiwanese semiconductor companies should want to help the U.S. do that, despite the fact that tensions between the U.S. and China keep growing?”

Khanna answered, “I think Taiwanese companies will want some of the incentives that we’ve provided in the CHIPS and Science Act that I helped co-write and the CHIPS and Science Act provides grants and provides tax incentives for any company that brings production to the United States, and TSMC is taking advantage of that. But a lot of the legacy chips, the chips that actually go into your cars, dishwashers, refrigerators, those are still being produced in China or offshore. And so, what I see is that TSMC is going to continue to be at the leading edge of chip production, be used by companies like Apple in the iPhone or latest devices, and that there’s going to be an intermediate market that Intel and other American companies can fulfill and it really will be the complement of Taiwan and the United States that has robust semiconductor production.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett