Sina Technology Beijing time on May 12 morning news, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and other chip buyers and Intel and other chip manufacturers to form a new lobbying group, they put pressure on the US government, hoping to obtain chip manufacturing subsidies.
The new group, the Semiconductors in America Coalition, is asking U.S. lawmakers to fund the Chip Manufacturing Act. Biden has asked Congress to provide $50 billion for the bill.
“Adequate funding for the chip manufacturing act can help the United States add the necessary capacity and create a more resilient supply chain that ensures critical technologies exist in the United States when we need them,” the semiconductor Alliance said in its letter.
A shortage of chips has affected car production. U.S. auto industry groups have asked the Biden administration to ensure chip supplies to auto plants. But the Biden administration is reluctant to pass legislation to transfer computer chips to cars because doing so would hurt other industries.
Amazon AWS, AT&T, Cisco, GENERAL Electric, HP Enterprise, and Verizon are also members of the new group. The Semiconductor Alliance argues that the government should not favour a single industry, saying: “The government should try not to interfere when the industry is trying to correct the chip shortage caused by the imbalance between supply and demand.”
Apple has also been hit by a shortage of chips, but not as badly as the car industry. Last month, Apple said it would lose $3 billion to $4 billion in revenue in the current quarter because of a shortage of chips, but the revenue loss is expected to be a modest $72.9 billion in the third quarter.