The cost of assets (especially housing, schooling, and health care) is a huge problem, and your example is a poignant one. More funding could sway a few people in that pipeline to go towards semi-conductors, but the majority of workers aren't Jane Street quality, they are technicians and engineers doing lots of highly skilled "grunt" work.
Personally I think the other half of the problem, Big Tech paying so much might be solving itself right now, excepting really only the very very top.
When Silicon Valley was cheap enough to live in that people could casually start a company in their garage... Then people didn't have to relentlessly optimize for short term comp.
Today you have to work at FANG to afford a garage in the Bay area.
Personally I think the other half of the problem, Big Tech paying so much might be solving itself right now, excepting really only the very very top.