May 14, 2021

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced on May 4 that the U.S. Department of Commerce is pressuring Taiwanese semiconductor company (TSMC) and other Taiwanese companies to prioritize U.S. automakers demands to alleviate the current chip shortage.

At the Council of the Americas event, Raimondo, in response to a question from a General Motors executive, said, “We’re working hard to see if we can get the Taiwanese and TSMC, which is a big company there, to, you know, prioritize the needs of our auto companies since there’s so many American jobs on the line. As I said, there’s not a day goes by that we don’t push on that.”

According to Raimondo, higher investment was needed in the longer term to produce more semiconductors in the United States, while other critical supply chains also needed to be retrained in allied countries.

However, TSMC said addressing the chip shortage remained its top priority.

TSMC CEO C.C Wei predicts that the company’s chip shortage for its automotive customers can be significantly reduced from the next quarter.

For more information, read the original story in Reuters.