US chip production targets at risk under Trump administration

For months during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was vocal about his criticism of the CHIPS and Science Act, the Biden administration’s $52 billion funding law meant to spur the build-out of a domestic semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. 

Trump was clear on his intent to pivot away from federal subsidies and towards tariffs, hoping to entice companies to onshore production in a bid to avoid import tax hikes. Earlier this week, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced plans to invest $100 billion in U.S. manufacturing capacity in a joint press briefing with the president. 

The announcement comes as Trump begins to take action against the CHIPS Act and those tasked with carrying it out. Last month, reports began surfacing that mass layoffs could be looming at the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, which also works closely on portions of the CHIPS Act, including funds disbursement. 

The Department of Commerce did not reply to a request for comment on possible layoffs. 

Trump made new calls for broader federal cuts on Feb. 26, when the administration’s Office of Management and Budget issued a memo demanding agency heads prepare to enforce “large-scale reductions in force” no later than March 13. 

“Agencies should focus on the maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated while driving the highest-quality, most efficient delivery of their statutorily-required functions,” the memo stated. 

Such cuts could undermine the Commerce Department’s ability to carry out the merits of the law and its billions of dollars in funding contracts to semiconductor makers like Intel and TSMC, said Jack Gold, founder and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

“The writing on the wall isn’t particularly good,” Gold said. “The truth is that if there’s nobody to administer the