Leading chipmakers like Intel Corp. were joined by Apple, Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet, along with a number of the largest chip buyers in the world, to establish another petitioning body to pressure for government chip manufacturing support.
Also along with Amazon.com’s Amazon Web Services, the just created Semiconductors in America Coalition on Tuesday said that it has questioned lawmakers in the US to financially support the CHIPS for America Act.
US President Joe Biden has already requested the Congress to shell out $50 billion for the said act.
“Robust funding of the CHIPS Act would help America build the additional capacity necessary to have more resilient supply chains to ensure critical technologies will be there when we need them,” the coalition wrote in a letter addressed to leaders from both the Democratic and Republicans in the Congress.
Automakers have suffered the impact of the global chip shortage.
For instance, Ford Motor Co. said its production for the second quarter is feared to be cut in half.
The Biden administration is being pressured by the automotive industry bodies to get chip supply intended for car factories.
Despite this, officials of the government hesitate to mobilize a national security legislation to re-address computer chips to automakers as it could compromise other sectors, according to last week’s report of Reuters.
Other industries which use up chips warned against the administration taking measures with only a single industry, like the automakers, in mind.
“Government should refrain from intervening as industry works to correct the current supply-demand imbalance causing the shortage,” the group, which includes companies like Cisco Systems, AT&T, General Electric, Verizon Communications, Inc., and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, said.
Apple is among the companies heavily affected by the chip shortage.
However, the impact it suffered is less as compared to automakers.
Last month, the company said that the chip shortage caused them to shed $3 billion to $4 billion in its sales in the present quarter about to close in June.
