Will Big Investment Promises Bring Back US Manufacturing?
Brian Albrecht, ICLE Chief Economist, was recently quoted in a Manufacturing Dive article discussing how major chipmakers’ multibillion-dollar U.S. investments remain high-risk bets amid policy uncertainty and supply-chain challenges. Read the full article here.
On a micro-industry level, it also depends on factors such as competition within sectors like semiconductors, said Brian Albrecht, chief economist at the International Center for Law and Economics.
“There’s even a difference between what Texas Instruments is doing and what TSMC is doing,” Albrecht said. While large investments such as Texas Instruments’ $60 billion investment are always a big gamble, it’s too early to tell how successful it will be. In Texas Instruments’ case, it holds 15% of the global analog chips market share, according to AInvest.
A company like TSMC, for example, has mastered what it’s doing in Taiwan, Albrecht added. In March, TSMC announced it was adding $100 billion to the previously pledged $65 billion investment to expand its manufacturing footprint in Arizona.
“That’s one of the reasons that you have things like the CHIPS [and Science] Act and other investment incentives to try to encourage this, especially domestically,” Albrecht said.
“But it’s obviously not a guarantee. Otherwise, everyone would be trying to do it,” Albrecht said.