Semiconductor Investments Won’t Pay Off If Congress Doesn’t Fix the Talent Bottleneck
Including talent provisions in the final version of the House bill should be central to the U.S. strategy to reshore the defense industrial base and stay competitive
www.lawfareblog.com
National security experts who have reviewed the semiconductor situation have converged on international talent as a key area for reform. The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, the GOP China Task Force, the bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force, and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology have all published reports identifying semiconductors as a critical need for U.S. national security and international talent recruitment as a vital part of any strategy to promote U.S. leadership. The artificial scarcity of semiconductor talent is already a major challenge in growing U.S. semiconductor capacity and will only get worse if the U.S. funds new fabs without expanding the talent pipeline. High-skilled STEM immigration will be necessary for success.