The Biden administration has pledged to provide up to $6.6 billion so that a Taiwanese semiconductor giant can expand the facilities it is already building in Arizona and better ensure that the most-advanced microchips are produced domestically for the first time.
Ultimately, whatever the case, it’ll take time to transition and if things with China heat up, we could see a situation where they destroy much of the chip fabrication for the west and Intel and global foundries have a lot of their capacity reserved for military uses. I mean, we’ll have bigger things to worry about than consumer chip shortages, but I’m wondering if it’s a good idea to keep some backups handy because if a part fails, it might be a while before it can be replaced at great expense.