Chips and electric vehicles fuel Biden’s major bet on American industrial strategy
A 77-year-old plant in a struggling Ohio town called NEW PHILADELPHIA sputtered into high gear to create a new line of electric trash trucks. A $20 billion facility that will turn pizza-sized silicon wafers into computer chips used in everything from data centres to automobiles has started building not far away.
The two Ohio plants, owned by the specialised truck manufacturer Battle Motors and the multinational corporation Intel Corp., demonstrate a renewed willingness on the part of the Biden administration to provide subsidies and other benefits to vital sectors like semiconductors and electric vehicles in an effort to boost American companies’ ability to compete in the global market.
On Wednesday, Tesla Inc. announced that some vehicle battery manufacture would move from Germany to the United States.
Some businesses have now had more prospects thanks to the Biden administration’s push, which economists refer to as an industrial policy, but there are still big obstacles to overcome.
The Republican lieutenant governor of Ohio, John Husted, spoke as earth movers rumbled behind him at Intel’s 1,000-acre site. He said projects like Intel provide an opportunity to “press the reset button” on the US strategy to developing critical businesses.
