Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said that the U.S. needed the CHIPS Act to compete globally in the semiconductor industry. He claimed that the CHIPS Act was designed to close the gaps that had emerged between the United States and Asian countries like Taiwan.
Gelsinger spent most of 2023 and 2024 trying to transform the semiconductor industry and seeking CHIPS and Science Act funding from the Biden administration. However, President Trump made it clear during a previous Congressional meeting that he wanted to cancel the $52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which semiconductor manufacturers have relied on for funding expansion projects across the country.
Trump criticized the law, calling it a ‘horrible, horrible thing’ that gave large sums of money to companies who did not spend it. He urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to get rid of the CHIPS Act and to use ‘whatever was left over’ to reduce debt or any other reason he wanted to. However, Gelsinger — who has spent more than 45 years in the tech industry, mostly in semiconductor development at Intel — has continued to talk up the need for the law’s funding for domestic chip manufacturing in TV interviews.
Gelsinger claims the U.S. needs the CHIPS Act funding to compete globally
Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger: CHIPS Act is needed https://t.co/eUMSG0Eju2 by @BrianSozzi
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) March 25, 2025
Gelsinger spent nearly two years (all of 2023 and 2024) trying to transform the U.S. semiconductor industry and also seeking to get a fair share of the CHIPS and Science Act funding from the Biden administration. In effect, he was the face of the CHIPS Act.
Gelsinger said he was fully behind the idea of boosting the U.S. semiconductor industry through the CHIPS Act but warned that the country could not afford to reverse what had already been ‘put in place for the CHIPS Act’. He added that America needed to continue restoring chip manufacturing and making plans for long-term research and development.
“Supply chains move because they’re advantaged. So in that sense, I see chips [making], plus some of the economic inducements, as being a formula that I fully agree with looking forward to.”
–Pat Gelsinger
The Biden administration signed the CHIPS Act into law in 2022, introducing major government subsidies to support domestic chip manufacturing. The law was meant to shore up chip supply chains and reduce reliance on industry heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM). It included $39 billion in subsidies for US chipmaking along with $13.2 billion for semiconductor R&D. Intel received a $7.86 billion grant from the CHIPS Act.
However, Intel said in February that its promised $28 billion chip fabrication plants in Ohio would not open until 2030 or 2031, marking a more than five-year delay in the opening timeline.
Trump throws the future of the $52.7B CHIPS Act into question
President Trump threw the future of the $52.7 billion CHIPS Act into question during his joint address to Congress earlier this month, saying it was a ‘horrible thing’. Trump’s abrupt mention of ‘killing the CHIPS Act’ came as his administration looked to slash spending across the government through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The comments came as a surprise, as the Commerce Department had already allocated and/or paid out approximately $36 billion of the funds related to the act for projects across the country.
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the US accounts for just 10% of the world’s chip production. However, Trump touted plans by Taiwan Semiconductors (TSMC) to spend $165 billion to construct new chip facilities in Arizona, pointing out that $6.6 billion of the funding for the project would come via the CHIPS Act as grants.
Bank of America semiconductor analyst Vivek Arya said Trump’s attack on the CHIPS Act was a massive distraction that the ‘semiconductor industry did not really need’. He acknowledged that the CHIPS Act had created good-paying manufacturing jobs in the country.
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