Eight months on, the Phoenix microchip plant - centerpiece of Biden's $52.7bn (£41.46) hi-tech manufacturing agenda - is struggling to begin production.
The plant's owner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the largest chip maker in the world, has pushed back plans to start manufacturing to 2025, blaming a lack of skilled labour. It is trying to fast-track visas for 500 Taiwanese workers.
Unions, meanwhile, accuse TSMC of inventing the skills shortage as an excuse to hire cheaper, foreign staff. Others point to safety issues at the plant.
The success of the plant - in a crucial swing state - is likely to face more scrutiny as Biden prepares for the 2024 election and US tensions with China over technology, and Taiwan, escalate.
Biden signed the Chips and Science Act, which includes $52.7bn in loans, grants and other incentives, and billions more in tax credits for manufacturers to produce chips in the US, in August 2022. The Arizona project is the flagship of the president's efforts and TSMC's promised $40bn investment is one of the largest foreign investments in US history and the largest ever in Arizona.
The stakes could not be higher. Semiconductor chips are the essential components of computers, smartphones and other electronic devices, and the coronavirus pandemic exposed how vulnerable the US had become to imports. About 12% of chips are made in the US, down from 37% in 1990. Boosting US production will add thousands of jobs as well as securing US supplies at a time of worsening relations with China, whose industry accounts for about 9% of global semiconductor sales.
The Phoenix facility will have two fabrication plants, or "fabs", on a 400 hectare (1,000 acre) area north of the city. Building is expected to generate 21,000 construction jobs, with about 4,500 workers at the fabs, and thousands of additional jobs at suppliers.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 31, 2023 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 31, 2023 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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