What you need to know
- The White House called for funding to fight the semiconductor shortage as part of its budget proposal to Congress.
- The proposal includes a request for $150 million to fund new manufacturing plants, including one for semiconductor manufacturing.
- The U.S. Government has taken several steps before this to address the semiconductor shortage.
President Biden called for funding to fight the semiconductor shortage in the White House's first budget proposal to Congress today. The request from the White House includes $150 million to fund two new manufacturing programs, one of which would target semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. The budget proposal also includes several other requests, but the semiconductor shortage is an important component for several industries.
The ongoing semiconductor shortage has made it difficult to purchase new game consoles, including the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PlayStation 5. It's also made it almost impossible to get your hands on the best graphics cards like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070. Likely more importantly to the White House and Congress, the semiconductor shortage has halted manufacturing of some vehicles and affected people's employment.
This isn't the first effort by the U.S. Government to address the semiconductor shortage. The "American Jobs Plan" included an investment of over $50 billion in the sector as part of the $2 trillion infrastructure package. President Biden also signed an executive order to review the semiconductor supply chain. The reviews of the semiconductor supply chain were scheduled to end this month.
The current global pandemic has exacerbated the semiconductor shortage. As more people work and study from home, demand for devices with semiconductors went up.
White House and cabinet officials are scheduled to host a virtual CEO summit to discuss the semiconductor supply chain. It's expected that companies such as AT&T, Ford, General Motors, Intel, and Samsung are likely to attend, according to The Verge.
