US President Biden’s top economic and national security advisers are today to host more than a dozen chief executive officers to discuss the administration’s US$2.25 trillion infrastructure plan and the global semiconductor shortage, a White House official said.
US National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan are to host the meeting, while US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo is also to participate.
Companies invited to join the administration officials include General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Stellantis NV, Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc, Dell Technologies Inc, Intel Corp, Medtronic PLC, Northrop Grumman Corp, HP Inc, Cummins Inc, Micron Technology Inc, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), AT&T Inc and Samsung Electronics Co.
Photo: Bloomberg
A White House official said that the agenda would include proposals in what Biden calls the “American Jobs Plan” to support the auto industry’s transition to clean energy, the creation of jobs and the preservation of US economic competitiveness.
“The president is deeply committed to ending the silos between domestic and foreign policy — and the semiconductor shortage is a perfect example of an urgent economic and national security priority for the Biden administration,” Sullivan said in a statement. “The shortage is impacting the lives of American workers and families as plants sit idled. And trying to address supply chains on a crisis-by-crisis basis creates critical national security vulnerabilities.”
The Biden administration is in the middle of a 100-day supply-chain review — including for semiconductors — and has called on the US Congress to pass legislation that would fund chips research and development.
The results of the review are not to be made public until June and today’s meeting is to inform the outcome, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday last week.
Intel, Samsung and TSMC have all announced plans to build factories in the US, although none of the companies has started construction and the timeline for production at the new plants would potentially be years away.
Deese said that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed economic vulnerabilities, as well as the importance of robust and reliable supply chains.
“This summit reflects the urgent need to strengthen critical supply chains and strategically position the US economy to lead the 21st century, and we look forward to partnering with our key stakeholders in this effort,” he said in a statement.
TSMC told the Central News Agency on Saturday that it planned to join the meeting, although it did not say which executive would attend.
TSMC on Friday posted a record NT$362.41 billion (US$12.76 billion) in revenue in the first quarter, up 16.7 percent from a year earlier.
The company is to hold an investors’ conference on Thursday to detail its first-quarter financial results, as well as its forecast for the rest of this year, and progress on planned chip fabs in Arizona and Japan.
Additional reporting by CNA
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his