By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chief executives of Intel and Micron are set to testify on March 23 before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on boosting semiconductor manufacturing and competitiveness, a source told Reuters.
Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell plans to announce the hearing on developing next-generation technology.
The chief executive of truckmaker Paccar Inc also is expected to testify at the hearing, which the source said will look at vulnerabilities in semiconductor supply chains and the sector’s connection with American competitiveness.
Last week, President Joe Biden met with executives of chipmakers including Samsung, Micron and other companies as part of an effort to push the U.S. Congress to fund $52 billion in subsidies to chipmakers to ease the semiconductor crunch.
Cantwell said last week it was urgent to act and noted that the chip shortage cost the global auto industry in 2021 an estimated $210 billion in revenue and a loss of production of 7.7 million cars.
She said “it’s 30 to 50% cheaper to build a semiconductor foundry in Asia than in the United States, mostly because of foreign government investment… We can’t wait.”
Intel said in a statement it was “pleased to have the opportunity to testify next week and advocate for the importance of investing in American semiconductor leadership.”
A persistent industry-wide shortage of chips has disrupted production in the automotive and electronics industries, forcing some firms to scale back production.
But progress has been scant toward hashing out differences in the two pieces of legislation. A bipartisan group of more than 140 U.S. lawmakers last week urged leaders in Congress to move forward on the funding.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)
