Government policymakers have been increasingly focused on protecting and promoting competition relating to semiconductors, the computer chips that enable modern technologies ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to mobile devices to the cloud. The Biden administration’s attention to semiconductor competition has included at least two different, yet interrelated, dimensions: antitrust and economic development policy, the latter arising primarily from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (the CHIPS Act).
In an article for the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Section’s Media & Technology Committee Newsletter, partner Joshua Goodman and associate Jordy Hur survey several recent developments, along both policy dimensions, that are relevant to competition in the semiconductor industry. These include recent activities of the Federal Trade Commission relating to AI chips as well as recent announcements pursuant to the CHIPS Act about semiconductor research and development initiatives, funding for specific chip fabrication facilities, and support for wireless communications innovation projects.