GlobalFroundries president and CEO Dr. Thomas Caufiled, left, stands with U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer after an announcement of the first CHIPS award in New York, $1.5 billion, to GlobalFoundries, funded through the Biden administration, spearheaded by U.S. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer's CHIPS & Science Law, Tuesday, Feb. 20 2024 during a brief question and answer session at GlobalFoundries in Malta.
GlobalFroundries president and CEO Dr. Thomas Caufiled, left, stands with U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer after an announcement of the first CHIPS award in New York, $1.5 billion, to GlobalFoundries, funded through the Biden administration, spearheaded by U.S. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer's CHIPS & Science Law, Tuesday, Feb. 20 2024 during a brief question and answer session at GlobalFoundries in Malta.
CAPITAL REGION — With millions at stake in the Capital Region, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer has pushed back against statements President Donald Trump made during his address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night that the CHIPS and Sciences Act should be done away with.
During the speech, Trump called the act, which provides billions in funding to advance semiconductor chip manufacturing in the U.S., “a horrible, horrible thing” and said it should be abolished and the money spent to “reduce debt or any other reason.”
Malta-based semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries was one of the few companies that received CHIPS Act funding to the tune of $1.5 billion over 10 years.
Of the $1.5 billion in funding, $1.375 billion would be used to help construct the company's second 385,000-square-foot 300mm fabrication facility at its headquarters in Luther Forest Technology Park.
GlobalFoundries did not return a request for comment on Trump’s remarks. However, on Tuesday, Reuters reported that GlobalFoundries CEO Thomas Caulfield said both the tariffs and the CHIPS Act funding could boost U.S. semiconductor production.
“I don't think one or the other is enough,” he told an investor conference hosted by Morgan Stanley. “I do believe you need [the] CHIPS [Act] and the [investment tax credit] to create the capacity, and the tariffs to kind of create the dynamics to make the demand want to come home.”
In January, Schumer touted that Albany Nanotech, which is set to become the country’s first semiconductor technology center, would get $825 million in CHIPS Act funding regardless of who was president.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, had previously said Congress would attempt to repeal the act but then walked the comments back.
Schumer said Wednesday the act had bipartisan support in the Senate and House and would strengthen national security as well as build the U.S. supply chain so the country wouldn’t need to rely on other countries for semiconductor chips.
“We cannot continue to lose thousands of jobs and factories to Asia. CHIPS incentives are critical to closing the cost gap, so we can make microchips in the USA again and lead the world in technology,” he said in an emailed statement. “CHIPS has already delivered $450 billion in new manufacturing investment that will create well over 100,000 new good-paying jobs. People are already feeling the positive impacts and new economic energy in their towns in every corner of America, from Ohio to Arizona. I do not think the president will find much support in Congress for undermining these CHIPS investments and the massive amount of jobs they are creating.”'
