Biden has a favorite stop when he hits the road: Chipmaking plants
President Joe Biden is headed to New York state Thursday to visit a Micron (MU) semiconductor manufacturing plant, where he will hand out more federal money to support US chipmaking.
Such visits are one of the president’s most common reasons for getting on the road. Biden has left Washington at least eight times as president to push his administration's chipmaking efforts.
During these stops, he often takes a tour to inspect the chips being built, as he did on a recent visit to an Intel facility in Arizona.
"It’s amazing, I’ll be darned," he said of the tiny chips on display that day, according to a pool report.
This week’s trip is to Micron's facilities near Syracuse, N.Y., where Biden will speak this afternoon.
"That’s the president’s home away from home," quipped Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York ahead of the trip, noting it was Biden’s second visit to the same facility.
The purpose of Thursday’s stop will be to tout a preliminary agreement for the government to send $6.14 billion to Micron in the years ahead, focused on the company’s production of leading-edge memory chips in New York and Idaho.
Lest Micron’s Boise plant feel left out, that site got a visit from a Biden aide in 2022.
Other big recent awards stemming from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act include $6.4 billion in grants for Samsung (005930.KS), $6.6 billion to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM), and $8.5 billion to Intel (INTC).
Biden has visited them all.
He traveled all the way to Korea to visit a Samsung facility and made two stops at Intel (INTC) factories as well as a visit to TSMC’s facilities in Arizona.
To top it off, there was also a trip to see IBM’s (IBM) chip operations in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., as well as a stop at communications company Viasat’s headquarters for a speech on the intersection of semiconductors and veterans.
Chipmakers have also come to Biden, including Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger's turn in the First Lady's box for the 2022 State of the Union address.
The politics of CHIPS visits
Like everything in an election year, the trips are likely to inevitably be viewed through a political lens, even as it’s unclear how many voters the Biden administration's historic investments in the sector are likely to move.
Polling on the 2022 law and its rollout has been sparse, though a 2022 survey from Morning Consult and Politico found 64% of respondents were supportive of the idea of government assistance to spur the semiconductor sector.
Only 13% of respondents registered opposition to the idea, with the remainder unsure.
As one might expect, Biden has spent a considerable amount of time in swing states for his chip trips, stopping in Arizona (twice) and Ohio to visit factories.
Biden and his allies are also clearly banking on the economic effects being felt in these different communities (and credited to the president).
The government assistance is helping in "writing a new chapter for places like Syracuse," Leader Schumer noted this week on a call with reporters.
He was followed by Lael Brainard, the director of Biden’s National Economic Council, who made sure to note an "economic comeback" in the region “after over 22,000 jobs disappeared from the Syracuse region under the prior administration.”
Thursday’s Micron announcement is the last of the Biden administration's awards for leading-edge manufacturing, with other, likely smaller, awards set to come in the months ahead on the semiconductor supply chain and related issues like advanced packaging.
The government grant for Micron will be paired with an investment from the company of up to $125 billion in projects that the government touts as the largest private investment in both New York and Idaho’s history.
The White House says all of this activity will create over 70,000 jobs.
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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