Yahoo Finance Commerce Secretary on CHIPS Act: We are vastly oversubscribed
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the CHIPS and Science Act.
Raimondo told Yahoo Finance, "We are vastly oversubscribed. Obviously, not everybody who wants money will be able to receive it. I have heard from certain politicians that the conditions are a problem. I have not heard that from industry. Not at all, quite the opposite."
Regarding clusters, Raimondo said, "The locations will be up to the companies. At least two really deep manufacturing clusters in the United States where we have the suppliers to the semiconductor fabs, the actual factories themselves, as well as packaging and testing."
In addition to the CHIPS Act, Raimondo sat down with Yahoo Finance to comment on the outlook for AI, the debt ceiling debate, the threat from China, and more.
Video transcript
GINA RAIMONDO: We've received over 200 statements of interest from companies in America and all over the world saying that they would like to participate. I mean, we are vastly oversubscribed. Obviously, not everybody who wants money will be able to receive it. I have heard from certain politicians that the conditions are a problem. I have not heard that from industry, not at all. Quite the opposite.
What I hear from industry leaders is child care is a good idea because they're struggling to fill their open positions and they need to have more creative ways to attract and retain women. I hear from them that they want workforce plans. And they want us to help them to develop these workforce plans. So the conditions that we've imposed are all designed to make these projects more effective, more efficient, more productive.
The locations will be up to the companies. At least two really deep manufacturing clusters in the United States where we have the suppliers to the semiconductor fabs, the actual factories themselves, as well as packaging and testing all in the United States, and very importantly, the research and development and the talent pipeline that goes with that.
We are not going to be satisfied by just creating a few new factories in the United States. We need to massively increase the number of semiconductor technicians that we train, the number of material scientists and chemists and physicists and engineers that we train because we not only need to get back our edge, but we need to maintain our edge for the long run. And that comes from the research and development. So the goals are still the same. We're on pace to hit them. We're working like crazy. And before the year is out, I think we'll have some pretty significant announcements.
