Business Insider's report on Lakshmi Varanasi on April 13, 2024
The Biden administration is subsidizing the semiconductor industry to boost chip production in the United States, but the United States does not have enough workers in the field of artificial intelligence chip manufacturing, and universities can be an important place to recruit new talent.
The United States desperately needs more workers to make AI chips.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the semiconductor industry is responsible for making artificial intelligence chips, but the number of workers in the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry has declined dramatically over the past two decades.
Corresponding to the decline in the number of workers, the share of the United States in the global chip manufacturing market is also declining. From 1990 to 2020, the number of chips made in the United States fell by a third. According to the Wall Street Journal, the combined share of Taiwan, Chinese mainland and South Korea grew by nearly 60 percent over the same period.
As AI becomes critical in national and international security, the United States is rushing to take control of chip manufacturing. "Since general AI software, datasets, and algorithms are not effective targets for control, attention naturally falls on the computer hardware necessary to implement modern AI systems," Saif M. Khan and Alexander Mann wrote in a report by the Center for Security and Emerging Technologies.
Advantages in chip manufacturing will help the United States maintain its global dominance. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a 2022 speech, "Given the fundamental nature of certain technologies, such as advanced logic and memory chips, we must maintain the greatest possible lead."
However, according to a McKinsey & Company report, chip manufacturing is the industry's biggest cost driver. And the cost of manufacturing in the United States is only getting higher.
As a result, the Biden administration is providing billions of dollars in funding for semiconductor R&D, manufacturing, and workforce development through the CHIPS and Science Act.
Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a leading chipmaker, is one such company that has used the subsidies to expand production in Arizona.
However, subsidies will only help if there are workers doing these jobs. If the U.S. really wants to catch up in the race to produce more chips, it will have to convince more workers to join the semiconductor industry.
Universities can be fertile ground for recruitment.
At Purdue University in Indiana, students are already excited about the AI boom and soaring valuations of U.S. chipmakers like Nvidia.
According to the Wall Street Journal, about 100 Purdue students majoring in materials, mechanical or electrical engineering chose to major in semiconductors after graduation, and another 135 students enrolled in certificate programs. There's even an on-campus semiconductor club that has attracted 170 new members in two months.
Purdue University is currently working with South Korean chipmaker SK hynix to build a $3.9 billion semiconductor complex in Silafayette to produce artificial intelligence memory chips, according to the Daily. Still, "one of the biggest challenges is getting students to fall in love with semiconductors," Nichelus Chavala, co-director of the semiconductor program at Purdue University and professor of materials engineering, told The Daily.
The good news is that experts also say that labor costs in the industry are likely to decrease in the coming years. Jiang Meng, president of Purdue University, told the Journal that one area where costs could come down is in packaging, which helps the chip connect with other devices. Packaging has long been a labor-intensive industry, but SK hynix's advanced packaging program will help "rewrite the cost equation," Jiang Meng told Daily.