A few days ago, the United States passed the Creating Beneficial Incentives for Chip Production Act, which proposes a series of investments and incentives to support U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, ensure R&D and supply chain security, and ensure the worldwide leading position of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing technology.

Recently, according to foreign media reports, the US think tank CSET stated that the implementation of the Act is insufficient in the US semiconductor talents, and at least more than 3,500 experienced and highly skilled talents must be imported from abroad. The think tank suggested that the United States should formulate policies to recruit talents from companies such as TSMC and Samsung.

CSET estimates that, thanks to the incentives of the Act, new semiconductor fabs in the United States may need to employ about 27,000 employees, which may come from other industries, academic institutions and overseas talents.

Although other industries can meet the needs of some relatively entry-level skills in semiconductors, such as inspection, testing, classification, etc., it will be very difficult to find talents for high-tech positions, and may have an impact on other industries. Although academic institutions can meet the demand for semiconductor talents to a certain extent, they must undergo a lot of on-the-job training. In addition, about 67% of master’s and 48% of semiconductor students in the United States are foreign students, and it is difficult to fully meet them.

CSET estimates that the U.S. semiconductor industry has a large overseas talent gap, totaling more than 3,500. Ideally, many of the 3,500 talent would be employees of leading logic chip makers such as TSMC and Samsung. To successfully introduce overseas talents, the think tank suggests adding visa channels especially for Taiwan and South Korea. For example, the South Korea Partnership Act will allocate 15,000 E-4 high-skilled work visas to South Koreans. In the future, the law will be amended to include Taiwan in the bill. Talent will be an effective way to achieve the proposed goals.

In fact, even if the United States gets the talents of TSMC and Samsung, it may be difficult to promote the development of the semiconductor industry in the United States. On October 26, 2021, TSMC founder Zhang Zhongmou said at a forum that the US chip industry supply chain is incomplete, and it is difficult for the US to become a country with a strong chip manufacturing industry.