Why Does the United States Need More Chip Factories?

Rene Haas says the United States needs more chip factories on its own soil, for national security and to diversify the supply chain. He answers as an American citizen. Arm's headquarters are in the United Kingdom. About 40 percent of employees are in the UK, about 30 percent are in the United States, and about 30 percent are in Asia, and he calls the US footprint huge. He remembers the 1980s, when the United States led semiconductors and Japanese competitors took memory share with aggressive pricing. He thought the push to rebuild the American semiconductor industry then was the right move. After the internet and software companies took over the conversation, he says, people forgot that semiconductors were a strategic asset.

He would give the United Kingdom the same advice at a smaller scale. For the United States, the size of the market and the role of chips, including at Intel and Micron, make domestic factories critical. More US fabs are a strategy he believes in.