ICYMI: Arizona Republic Highlights How Sen. Kelly’s CHIPS Act Will Create Thousands of Arizona Jobs

In case you missed it, the Arizona Republic covered how Arizona Senator Mark Kelly’s CHIPS Act of 2022 will create tens of thousands of Arizona jobs, lower costs, and boost our state’s growing semiconductor industry. Recently, Kelly welcomed U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to Phoenix to visit ASU’s Research Park, home to their new microchip manufacturing plant.

During their visit, Kelly and Secretary Raimondo toured the ASU facility that will help train students for the 10,000 new jobs the CHIPS Act is expected to create. Kelly and Raimondo hosted a roundtable to discuss the labor shortages, the benefits the CHIPS Act will bring to Arizona and how semiconductor manufacturing needs to be made more appealing to students. Part of the $52.7 billion in funding the bill has allocated for microchip manufacturing over five years will incentivize domestic chip manufacturing, addressing the issues covered during the roundtable. 

ASU President, Michael Crow highlighted that the university is preparing their students to enter the microchip industry in their engineering programs with record high numbers of students enrolling. Microchip industry giants like the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and ON Semiconductor already have facilities in Arizona and it is expected that more companies will bring their businesses into the state thanks to the funding the state is receiving and the efforts to prepare more students to enter the workforce. 

Read key excerpts from the article below: 

​Arizona is poised to assume a leading role in America’s semiconductor renaissance, helped by a multibillion-dollar infusion of federal funding from recently enacted legislation, say business, political and educational leaders.

One of the more tangible results could be 10,000 or more new jobs in the semiconductor sector over the next decade or so for the state. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., helped to usher the semiconductor-boosting CHIPS Act through Congress this summer. He made that off-the-cuff employment projection after a panel discussion on the legislation Aug. 30 in Tempe.

Kelly said it’s reasonable to assume that for every direct permanent job at a manufacturing plant or “fab” that produces semiconductors or chips, another five to seven positions could be created in construction, at nearby shopping centers, at restaurants, with local suppliers and in other industries.

[…] Michael Crow, ASU’s president, said the university is readying much of the talent that will be needed by semiconductor manufacturers, with more than 30,000 students now enrolled in the engineering school.

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