President Joe Biden on Tuesday visited a multimillion dollar microchip material factory in Michigan, pointing to billions of dollars in similar investments around the country to boost semiconductor production and compete with countries like China.
Biden first toured SK siltron css’s facility in Auburn on Tuesday, the site of a new $300 million expansion announced last year. The facility makes semiconductor wafers optimal for electric vehicles.
It’s part of a larger push under the Biden administration to focus on manufacturing jobs and bolster the semiconductor industry at home, after pandemic backlogs delayed the critical chips and squeezed goods like cars and home appliances.
The new Michigan investment, according to the White House, will allow SK to “quadruple production capacity over the next few years, create up to 150 jobs, and increase its workforce to nearly 300 employees.”
Biden on Tuesday wasn’t shy about his intention to compete directly with China by solidifying American production independence, mentioning his recent meeting with President Xi Jinping.
“He’s a little upset that we’re deciding …. We’re going to be the supply chain,” Biden said. “We’re going to make that supply chain available to the rest of the world, but we’re not going to be held hostage anymore.”
Biden said the United States’ European partners were also “upset.” He’s set to host French president Emannuel Macron at the White House this week, who is indeed expected to bring up the issue of limits imposed on foreign producers, according to the French embassy’s spokesperson.
The White House has highlighted what they call a manufacturing “boom” under Biden, with more than $240 billion in new private sector manufacturing investment across the country since 2021, especially for products like semiconductor chips and electric vehicles.
The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act Biden signed this year committed more than $52 billion to semiconductor production and create jobs in the sector.
“I knew we could turn things around. I’ve never been more optimistic about America than I have been the last several years,” Biden said Tuesday.
The goal, he added, is to give middle class families a better foundation: “It’s about being able to look your child in the eye and say ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay.’ That’s what a job should be about.”
Biden previously met virtually in July with the chairman of SK Group, the parent company of SK siltron. The conglomerate committed to investing more than $22 billion in U.S. tech, green energy and pharmaceuticals.
