Top chip buyers such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, and Alphabet Inc’s Google are in the process of joining together with chip manufacturers such as Intel Corp in a move to establish a new lobbying group aimed at pressing for government chip manufacturing subsidies.
This group, the Semiconductors in America Coalition, is requesting that U.S. lawmakers inject funds into the CHIPS for America Act, which is expected to be worth $50 billion. The lobbying group recently submitted a letter to both houses of U.S. Congress, in which it explained that the largescale funding of the CHIPS for America Act would help to ensure that the United States has the supply chains necessary to “ensure critical technologies will be there when we need them.”
Other members of the Semiconductors in America Coalition include chip-consuming companies such as AT&T, Cisco Systems, General Electric, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Verizon Communications Inc.
At the core of this lobbying group’s formation is the global chip shortage that has been experienced over the past year, which has severely affected several industries, particularly the automotive industry. While less severely hit than their automotive counterparts, tech companies such as Apple are experiencing largescale declines in sales, with the iPhone producer set to lose $3 billion to $4 billion in sales in the current quarter ending in June.
