NOVEMBER 2024
Too Good to Lose
America’s Stake in Intel
By Sujai Shivakumar, Charles Wessner, and Thomas Howell
I
n 2022, Congress enacted the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS Act), a pivotal initiative
which seeks to ensure U.S. leadership in semiconductor technoloy—the backbone of everything
from cars to household appliances to defense systems. The CHIPS Act represents a national eort
to reverse recent trends, driven by major industrial policies of other countries, that have led to the
loss of U.S. leadership in the technoloy needed to manufacture the most advanced semiconductors.
The United States has also seen an erosion of onshore chipmaking, which now accounts for only about
10 percent of global capacity. The urgency of the situation was brought into sharp relief by highly
disruptive chip shortages during the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, China—the United States’ most
formidable strategic competitor—is making rapid strides in semiconductor technoloy, particularly in
defense-related areas.
In its plan for implementing the CHIPS Act, the U.S. government has earmarked substantial federal
assistance for the world’s three most advanced chipmakers, among others, to construct leading-edge
manufacturing facilities and grow U.S. regional semiconductor ecosystems. Two of these rms,
the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) and Samsung, are slated to receive
substantial funding to support major investments in such ecosystems, which bring manifold
opportunities for local growth and employment. Both rms are headquartered outside the United States
and have, in the past, kept the lion’s share of their research and development (R&D) and technoloy
development in their respective home countries.
The third leading-edge rm is the storied Intel Corporation, the largest and most advanced
U.S.-headquartered manufacturer. Intel has an unmatched history of breakthrough semiconductor
innovations—including the rst programmable microprocessor and the x86 architecture—which have
together made an “indelible impact on the world of computing . . . [that] continues to shape the digital
landscape of the modern world.”
