National Semiconductor Economic Roadmap recommends over 100 initiatives to boost semiconductor industry

A recent report outlines over 100 initiatives that could boost the semiconductor industry. The Arizona Commerce Authority and Boston Consulting Group recently collaborated on a National Semiconductor Economic Roadmap (NSER) to advance semiconductor competitiveness in the United States. The report features input from over 80 industry leaders, education institutions, and public sector leaders across the nation to outline a 10-year, industry-led action plan for the semiconductor industry, focusing on infrastructure, supply chain, workforce, and entrepreneurship.

The reliance on international partners within the semiconductor industry has created shortages in the U.S.'s aerospace, defense, and energy infrastructure, and shifts in domestic manufacturing capacity have weakened the nation's semiconductor industry. The success of the investment possible through the CHIPS and Science Act will rely on effective collaboration, which inspired the NSER. The roadmap states that with this investment, the U.S. could capture between 16-28% of global industry capital rather than a projected 8% and increase the U.S. share of global capacity to 11-16% in 2033 instead of 8%.

The roadmap identifies infrastructure as the most important domain and the action plan laid out in the report features initiatives like creating an expedited EPA review for semiconductor manufacturing activities to decrease pre-construction activities and improving programs that collect and standardize reporting metrics for industry capital and R&D investment. For the supply chain, the report highlights initiatives like identifying shared materials to combine market power, advocating for continued foreign market access for low-risk goods and services, and creating programs to standardize and collect cross-industry data.

The roadmap features workforce initiatives like exposing pre-career students to semiconductor work, conducting a survey to determine barriers preventing semiconductor careers, and adjusting compensation to compete with other countries and similar industries to meet the demand for talent. The report also includes initiatives to boost entrepreneurship such as advocating for a Small Business Administration loan for semiconductor entrepreneurs, increasing the number of startups funded by corporate venture funds, and establishing routine meetings between entrepreneurs, large companies, education facilities, and government entities to help support innovation and U.S. semiconductor competitiveness.