U.S. Secretary of Commerce talks domestic chip production

In a Thursday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo stressed the importance of domestic chip production and said the country is on track to meet its end-of-decade goal.

“My boss, President Biden, has been crystal clear on this topic, and I think there’s no place to be reckless here or play politics with this,” Raimondo said. “It’s time to get serious and have serious solutions to these issues, which is exactly why we passed the CHIPS act, and exactly what we’re doing in implementing it.”

The Biden Administration’s CHIPS act allocated billions to encourage semiconductor companies to manufacture their products in the U.S., with recipients including Intel, Micron, Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor.

Raimondo said more than 90% of the U.S.’s graphics chips — which are vital for electronics, including phones, cars, military equipment — are manufactured in Taiwan. She called this situation “untenable” and “unsafe,” saying it makes the U.S. vulnerable. And while Raimondo said there will always be chips manufactured in Taiwan, she said the U.S. “needs to get out of this place of extreme vulnerability.”

According to Raimondo, the country is “right on the path” to meet its goal of having 20% of chips made domestically by 2030, even though she characterized the feat as “audacious.” She also pushed back against the notion that foreign countries like Taiwan took manufacturing jobs away from the U.S., saying these decisions had been made by American corporations.

“American businesses were in search of cheap capital and cheap labor and profits, so everything went overseas—China, Taiwan, etcetera,” Raimondo said. “Except, we wake up now, and we find that whether it’s chips or critical minerals or components, we’re vulnerable. Not everything’s about short term profits. You have to also have national security in your lens primarily.”