President Biden traveled to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to connect a $20 billion investment by IBM to the bipartisan bill meant to spur production of critical microchips.
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During his visit to IBM’s Hudson Valley facility in New York, President Biden highlighted the CHIPS and Science Act that provides subsidies to companies that sign up to jump-start domestic production of semiconductor chips.Credit
President Biden visited the Hudson Valley of New York on Thursday to tour an IBM facility after the company announced it would invest $20 billion across the region to increase its production of semiconductors and develop advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Mr. Biden has ramped up his travel schedule to promote the bipartisan legislative achievements that his administration has guided as the November midterm elections approach. At the company’s campus in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., he highlighted an industrial bill he signed in August that provides subsidies to companies that sign up to jump-start domestic production of semiconductor chips.
The White House has held up the law as a way to keep up with China and other countries — including South Korea, Japan, India and Germany — that offer subsidies for the production of semiconductors, which are critical components in everything from smartphones to military technology.
“More is going to change in the next 10 years than it has in the last 40,” Mr. Biden said. “Where in God’s name is it written that we can’t be the manufacturing hub of the world? There’s a lot of reasons to be optimistic.”
The legislation, called the CHIPS and Science Act, contains $52 billion in subsidies and tax credits for companies that manufacture chips in the United States, with more than half of the amount dedicated to helping companies build facilities for making, assembling and packaging some of the world’s more advanced chips.
In a news release before Mr. Biden’s visit, IBM hailed the bill for its effort to “secure supply of next-generation chips for today’s computers and artificial intelligence platforms as well as fuel the future of quantum computing by accelerating research, expanding the quantum supply chain, and providing more opportunities for researchers to explore business and science applications of quantum systems.”
IBM’s announcement came two days after Micron Technology, the Idaho-based computing company, announced that it planned to spend as much as $100 billion over the next two decades or more to build a computer chip factory complex in upstate New York.
“There is no doubt that without the CHIPS Act, we would not be here today,” Sanjay Mehrotra, the chief executive of Micron, said on Tuesday.
During his remarks, Mr. Biden emphasized that the law would bolster American competitiveness in research and technology at a time when other countries have pulled ahead.
“We’re going to make sure that any company that uses federal research and development funding to invest in new technologies has to make the product in America,” Mr. Biden said to applause, adding later: “It matters. This is about economic security, folks. It’s about national security. It’s about good-paying jobs you can raise a family on.”
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Administration officials hope that the bill’s bipartisan support, coupled with a windfall of pledged investment from large technology companies, is the sort of accomplishment that could appeal to voters ahead of the midterms. Seventeen Republicans voted for the bill in the Senate, while 24 Republicans supported it in the House.
At one point, Mr. Biden, citing news reports, accused the Chinese government of lobbying in Congress against the law. “The Chinese Communist Party actively lobbied against the CHIPS and Science Act that I’d been pushing in the United States Congress,” Mr. Biden said. “Unfortunately, some of our friends on the other team bought it.”
Representative Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, the chairman of House Democrats’ campaign arm, accompanied the president on his trip, as did Paul Tonko, and Pat Ryan, two Democratic congressmen from New York. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, greeted Mr. Biden when he arrived in New York.
Mr. Biden’s visit was also meant to bolster the fortunes of two Democrats facing tight races in next month’s elections. Mr. Maloney is facing a challenge from Assemblyman Michael Lawler in his district, which includes the Hudson Valley.
Mr. Ryan, who won a special House election in August, is in a tight race against Assemblyman Colin Schmitt of New Windsor for the swing-district seat. The special election was seen as a potential test of the impact that June’s Supreme Court decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion might have on the midterm elections.
After leaving Poughkeepsie, Mr. Biden traveled to Red Bank, N.J., to participate in a reception for the Democratic National Committee. On Thursday evening, he was set to attend another reception for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Source: nytimes.com
