September 28, 2022 | Newsweek

American Semiconductor Leadership Suffers from Bad Defense, No Offense

September 28, 2022 | Newsweek

American Semiconductor Leadership Suffers from Bad Defense, No Offense

“America invented the semiconductor,” declared President Joe Biden upon signing the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, a $280 billion bill intended to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor industry, and with it American competitiveness. “And this law brings it back home,” the president continued. “It’s no wonder the Chinese Communist Party actively lobbied U.S. business against this bill.”

That rhetoric sounds great. Unfortunately, it is just rhetoric. The reality is that without appropriate protection of technological advance, these investments risk ceding competitiveness to Beijing. The U.S. foreign investment review process—overseen by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)—is allowing Beijing-linked entities access to potentially game-changing semiconductor innovation.

The latest example: at the end of August, just two weeks after the CHIPS Act became law, Chinese-funded AlphaWave IP Group announced that its planned acquisition of California-based OpenFive had been approved by all regulators, including CFIUS.

Issues:

China