US semiconductor industry calls on Washington to provide billions for research to keep ahead of China
- Washington grows wary of Beijing’s ambitions, which include the ‘Made in China 2025’ industrial blueprint, and goal of closing the technology gap
A trade group representing US semiconductor companies has called on Washington to provide billions of dollars in annual investment for research to improve chip performance and hire more talent – moves similar to China’s “Big Fund” and Thousand Talents programme aimed at catching up to the US in chip and other core technologies.
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), whose members include chip makers Intel, Qualcomm, and Nvidia, released a blueprint report titled “Winning the Future” earlier this week, and urged the US to invest between US$1.5 billion and US$5 billion annually to “advance new materials, designs and architectures” that will exponentially increase chip performance.
“Although US companies still lead the world with nearly half of global market share, state-backed competition from abroad seeks to displace US leadership,” the report said.
“To maintain our innovation trajectory for the next 50 years and win the competition for global leadership in the technologies of the future, the US must lead the world in semiconductor innovation.”
Should the US take heed of the association’s policy recommendations, it would spark a state-backed race to technology supremacy by two of the largest global superpowers just as the world is on the cusp of 5G networks revolutionising industries such as manufacturing as well as fields like smart cities and artificial intelligence (AI) – all of which require foundational technology, such as semiconductors.