Largest tech companies urge Washington to aid chip manufacturers

WASHINGTON D.C.: A novel alliance of major chip purchasers, comprising Google, Apple, and Microsoft, and leading chip manufacturers, including Intel, has been established with the objective of pressing for governmental state funding for incentives in chip production.

The recently set up Semiconductors in America Coalition, including the cloud platform AWS of Amazon, stated on May 11 that the group has urged legislators in the United States to offer funding for the bill, known as the CHIPS for America Act, for which President Joe Biden has sought $50 billion from the Congress.

"Robust funding of the CHIPS Act would help America build the additional capacity necessary to have more resilient supply chains to ensure critical technologies will be there when we need them," according to a letter from the alliance, sent to Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

Automotive manufacturers are reeling from a worldwide shortage of chips, with Ford hinting at cutting manufacturing in Q2 by 50 percent.

Various segments of the automotive industry have made requests to the Biden administration to obtain critical supplies of chips for plants assembling cars.

However, a Reuters report in May drew attention to the reluctance of administrative officers to apply a national security law for diverting computer chips to automotive manufacturers, since several industries would be disadvantaged by this move.

The new alliance comprises several industries utilizing chips, including tech companies Cisco, GE, HPE, AT&T, and Verizon.

"Government should refrain from intervening as the industry works to correct the current supply-demand imbalance causing the shortage," the alliance emphasized.

The shortage of chips has additionally impacted technology firms, including Apple, though with less severity than automotive manufacturers.