Yvonne Hao
Updated: April 3, 2023
Viewpoint
Viewpoint: The U.S. has lost its edge on chips manufacturing. We want the Northeast to win it back.
By Yvonne Hao and Christine Nolan
Forty years ago, the U.S. was a global leader in manufacturing semiconductors and microelectronics. We not only invented the technology, we invested in research and produced 40% of the world’s chips. Today, the U.S. makes just 10%.
The CHIPS and Science Act, signed by President Joe Biden in August, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reclaim our leadership while investing in the cutting-edge industries key to our country’s security and economy. In February, we joined 85+ organizations across eight states in submitting a proposal to the Department of Defense CHIPS and Science Act-funded Microelectronics Commons program, which will provide $1.6 billion over the next five years to hubs across the country. We want our region to be one.
Our goal is to create the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition to invest in R&D and manufacturing. Winning this proposal would allow Massachusetts to make transformational investments in innovation, technology, and advanced manufacturing. This would mean new jobs, groundbreaking research, programs to prepare a workforce of tomorrow, and much-needed resources for large players and startups. We will train highly skilled workers at our community colleges and universities and connect them to careers in microelectronics. Coalition members could move technologies from the drawing board to design, fabrication, and testing. Our region will become a global leader in the production of chips, the brains behind nearly every piece of modern technology, from consumer goods and electric vehicles to advanced defense technologies.
Christine Nolan
MassTech has been assembling our coalition and developing this proposal with the backing of industry leaders like Analog Devices, BAE Systems, DuPont, MACOM, and Raytheon. Gov. Maura Healey has bolstered our effort by proposing $40 million in matching funds from the Commonwealth in the Immediate Needs Bond Bill filed in January. Our state is already leading this sector in so many ways, and we’re drawing from a deep history of innovation thanks to our world-class universities like MIT, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Harvard, and UMass. As the state’s chief economic development officer and director of the Commonwealth’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing, we are keenly aware we need to do the right things now, to ensure in the next decade we are growing our leadership in innovation and technology. With the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition, Massachusetts is stepping up to play a leading role in our nation’s future.
Yvonne Hao is the Massachusetts secretary of housing and economic development. Christine Nolan is the director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech.
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