Archyde.com reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter, that a number of U.S. semiconductor companies are considering whether to oppose the upcoming chip subsidy bill, if the final wording of the bill could give Intel and other manufacturers unreasonable benefits.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer revealed that a vote on the scaled-back chip bill could take place as soon as Tuesday (19th). The purpose of the bill is to make the United States more competitive with the rising Chinese chip industry, which has grown rapidly over the past five years and accounts for nearly 10 percent of global chip sales.
Therefore, the United States offered a bill including $52 billion in subsidies and investment tax credits to promote the US chip manufacturing industry. Despite bipartisan support in the U.S., Republicans are likely to vote against it unless Democrats drop their push for some unrelated spending bill that Republicans oppose.
Although the chip bill is a bullish policy for the US chip industry, and the Semiconductor Industry Association is also happy to see it succeed, there are objections within the industry, and some industry insiders worry that the final wording of the bill may have a negative impact on Intel. and other manufacturers provide disproportionately high support, while Super Micro (AMD-US),Qualcomm (QCOM-US), Huida (NVDA-US) and other chip makers were lower.
Intel, Texas Instruments (TXN-US), Micron (MU-US) and other companies that design and manufacture their own chips will benefit from the $52 billion chip bill and the equipment investment tax credit in another called the FABS Act. However, Supermicro, Qualcomm, and Huida each designed their own chips, but produced them through partners, so they could not directly benefit from the bill.
Companies such as Supermicro are even more supportive of the FABS bill proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives because it includes a manufacturing tax credit and a tax credit for chip designs that would directly benefit it.
The current Senate legislation does not design a tax credit. That would spark debate among some U.S. chip companies against the Senate bill if the final wording does not include tax credits for design activities, people familiar with the matter said.
An industry opponent of the chip bill said Intel could receive $20 billion in grants under the chip bill and $5 billion to $10 billion under the FABS bill. A total of $30 billion goes to competitors, while some companies get nothing, potentially causing problems for the market. Others pointed out: “The bill will only benefit a few companies.”
Huida declined to comment before the deadline, and spokespersons for Supermicro, Qualcomm and Intel did not immediately respond.