This article seems to be looking for problems. The US will pay its workers a living wage, and that seems to be a reason the author says our industrial chip mfg plants will fail. They also claim that "industrial planning" will not work in the US like it did in Taiwan because the president is not an Intel/TSMC employee. What? The author literally refutes their own claim by saying "in the words of one Arizona insider, the state has 'government, academia, and industry all rowing in the same direction.'"

I think the author misconstrues the true nature of this bill. This is supposed to kickstart chip manufacturing on US soil. It is not supposed to make the US the dominant player in the chip industry overnight. We are literally investing in TSMC facilities! The US would not do that if they wanted to be the dominant player in chips-- they would only allow US companies to receive investment.

It does seem like the author is looking for liberal failings to point at... but the underlying reasons aren't even that important. TSMC is publicly saying costs are extremely high compared to Taiwan, and however you slice that, it is not a good omen for even a small scale U.S. chip industry.

That’s not necessarily a surprise, though, right? US per capita GDP is at least twice Taiwan’s. And even if the costs are higher, that’s still perhaps a decent insurance policy to have a chip supplier that isn’t located in the first island chain.

Yeah, but why not anywhere else with cheaper costs? Intel has fabs all over the world.

As many have stipulated before, the business justifications seem largely political, and not just from Taiwan wanting to spread their business out. And that will cap the size and success of the U.S. fabs.