White House presses car and chip makers to cooperate and share information to solve semiconductor shortage
- The White House is pressing carmakers and chip firms to be more aggressive in solving a semiconductor shortage that has upended the auto industry
- Firms worry about revealing sensitive pricing details, but the commerce secretary said the government would mandate information sharing if necessary
The White House is pressing carmakers, chip companies and others to cooperate in a bid for more information about the ongoing semiconductor crisis that has forced cuts to US auto production, but made clear on Thursday that the industry needs to take the lead to solve the problem.
“It’s time to get more aggressive,” she said. “The situation is not getting better, in some ways it is getting worse.”
The White House said the administration “reaffirmed that industry needs to be in the lead in resolving the supply chain bottlenecks that are occurring due to the global chip shortage”.
Raimondo said a voluntary request Thursday for information within 45 days on the chips crisis is about boosting supply chain transparency and to “get more granular into the bottlenecks and then ultimately predict challenges before they happen”.
She warned that if companies did not answer the voluntary request, “then we have other tools in our tool box that require them to give us data. I hope we don’t get there. But if we have to we will.”