特朗普的經濟政策令美國半導體製造業繁榮前景變得複雜（1/2）

Recently Yahoo News on-line picked up the following:

Potential US semiconductor manufacturing boom complicated by Trump's economic policies (1/2)

The Associated Press - Sarah Parvini

Wed, May 21, 2025 at 7:15 a.m. PDT·6 min read

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Before “America First” became the Trump administration’s mandate for foreign policy and trade, one sector was already working to bring business back to the United States: the semiconductor industry.

Aided by government incentives, American and foreign tech companies alike have invested hundreds of billions of dollars to bolstering semiconductor operations — research and development, manufacturing and facility modernization — across the country in recent years.

In few places is the growth of the U.S. semiconductor industry clearer than in the Greater Sacramento region, where tech leaders and lawmakers have, for years, sought to grow California’s role in producing the chips that power everyday necessities like cars, refrigerators and smartphones. Semiconductor giants clustered in cities just outside Silicon Valley — Intel, AMD, Bosch, Samsung and Micron — are building on a tech foothold Intel first established when it opened its Sacramento-County campus in 1984.

But President Donald Trump’s economic policies have complicated that growth as the administration takes its next steps toward imposing more tariffs on key imports and launching investigations into imports of computer chips and chip-making equipment — all at a time when deeper semiconductor investments were just starting to have a positive impact on changing supply chains. New tariffs, paired with the administration’s threats against the CHIPS and Science Act, could dramatically slow its goal of ensuring the U.S. maintains a competitive edge in artificial intelligence development.

“You’re starting to see some of it now. Samsung announced a delay in the fabs in Texas,” said Mario Morales, an analyst with the International Data Corp. “That facility was supposed to come online in 2024 now it’s being delayed to 2028. I think some of these companies are delaying it because they now know that they’re not going to likely get funding, or because of the uncertainty around the acts that we’re seeing around the new trade policy.”

When asked about the delay, Samsung said the Texas site will be ready by 2026.

Although the U.S. is a major producer of certain types of semiconductor chips, the nation's share of global chip production — measured by volume and not dollar value — fell from 37% in 1990 to just 10% in 2022, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. As a result, the country relies heavily on imports from Taiwan and South Korea for advanced chips.

Major manufacturers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. are investing to build up U.S. facilities, partly due to incentives put in place during former President Joe Biden’s time in office. The CHIPS Act, a law passed in 2022 with bipartisan support, was designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing while sharpening the U.S. edge in military technology and minimizing future supply chain disruptions.

Because of the CHIPS Act, the U.S. is projected to more than triple its semiconductor manufacturing capacity — the highest rate of growth in the world during that period, according to a May 2024 report from the Semiconductor Industry Association and the Boston Consulting Group.

Barry Broome, president of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, said weaknesses in the semiconductor supply chain became evident during the pandemic, when the U.S. experienced a shortage in supply. It was “abundantly clear that having these chip products offshore in Vietnam, Taiwan, China for cost savings had serious implications.”

Those pandemic-era challenges, paired with looming tensions between China and Taiwan, have helped drive the industry to the Sacramento area, he said. Northern California's wealth of tech knowledge and established roots in the semiconductor industry are also attractive traits that have brought investment to the Sacramento region as federal subsidies begin to bolster domestic growth.

(to be continued)

Translation

特朗普的經濟政策令美國半導體製造業繁榮前景變得複雜（1/2）

洛杉磯（美聯社）— 在「美國優先」成為特朗普政府外交政策和貿易政策的口號之前，有一個產業已經在努力將企業帶回美國：半導體產業。

在政府激勵措施的幫助下，近年來美國和外國科技公司都已在全美投資數千億美元，用於加強半導體業務 - 包括研發、製造和設施現代化。

美國半導體產業有最顯著成長的地方，莫過於大薩克拉門托(Greater Sacramento) 地區。多年來，該地區的科技領導者和立法者一直致力加州生產用於推動汽車、冰箱和智慧型手機等日常必需品晶片方面的地位。英特爾、AMD、博世、三星和美光等半導體巨頭都聚集在矽谷週邊城市，他們正在鞏固由英特爾在 1984 年開設於薩克拉門託縣園區時所建立的技術立足點。

然而，隨著特朗普政府採取進一步措施，對關鍵進口產品加徵關稅，並對電腦晶片和晶片製造設備的進口展開調查，特朗普總統的經濟政策使這一增長變得複雜 - 而與此同時，向半導體更深入的投資才剛開始對不斷變化的供應鏈產生正面影響。新的關稅，加上特朗普政府對《晶片與科學法案》的威脅，可能會大大減緩其確保美國在人工智能發展領域保持競爭優勢的目標。

國際數據公司（IDC）分析師 Mario Morales 表示: 「現在你開始看到一些跡象了。三星宣布推遲德克薩斯州晶圓廠的建設」; 「該工廠原定於2024年投產，現在被推遲到2028年。我認為其中一些公司推遲建設是, 因為他們現在知道不太可能獲得資金，或者因為我們看到圍繞新貿易政策的行動存在不確定性」。

當被問及推遲建設的原因時，三星表示德州的設置將於 2026年完成準備。

儘管美國是某些類型半導體晶片的主要生產國，但根據半導體產業協會的數據，美國在全球晶片產量中的份額（以產量而非美元價值衡量）已從1990年的37%下降到2022年的僅10%。因此，美國在先進晶片方面嚴重依賴從台灣和韓國進口。

像台灣半導體製造公司這樣的大型製造商, 正在投資建造美國工廠，部分原因是前總統拜登執政期間出台的激勵措施。 《晶片法案》（CHIPS Act）於2022年獲得兩黨支持通過，旨在重振美國半導體製造業，同時增強美國在軍事技術領域的優勢，並最大限度地減少未來供應鏈中斷。

根據半導體產業協會和波士頓顧問集團2024年5月發布的報告，由於《晶片法案》，美國的半導體製造能力預計將增加三倍以上，是同期全球最高的成長率。

大薩克拉門托經濟委員會主席 Barry Broome 表示，在疫情期間，美國經歷了供應短缺，半導體供應鏈的弱點變得愈發明顯。這是 “顯而易見，為了節省成本而將這些晶片產品轉移到越南、台灣和中國大陸生產，會產生嚴重後果。”

他表示，疫情期間的挑戰，加上中國大陸和台灣地區日益緊張的局勢，促使半導體產業轉移到薩克拉門托地區。隨著聯邦政府補貼開始提振國內經濟成長，及北加州豐富的科技知識和在半導體產業的深厚根基, 都是吸引了大量投資的特質，這些因素亦吸引了大量投資湧入薩克拉門托地區。

（待續）