US Commerce Department asks Taiwan for chips production

The U.S. Commerce Department is asking Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and other Taiwanese companies to prioritize the needs of U.S. automakers to ease chip shortages in the near term, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

Raimondo informed a Council of the Americas event on Tuesday that longer-term, boosted investment was needed to produce more semiconductors in the United States and that other important supply chains required re-shoring, including to allied nations.

“We’re working hard to see if we can get the Taiwanese and TSMC, which is a big company there, to, you know, prioritize the needs of our auto companies since there are so many American jobs on the line,” said Raimondo in response to a question from a General Motors executive.

“As I said, there’s not a day goes by that we don’t push on that,” she said, adding the medium- and long-term solution would be making more chips in the US.

On Wednesday, TSMC said that tackling the shortage remained its leading priority.