Oregon

For the United States to remain competitive with international economies, it has to become a leader in the globe’s booming microchip or semiconductor industry. With the Biden Administration’s CHIPS and Science Act, the nation will move from producing a mere 12% of the world’s supply of microchips to positively dominating the industry with the state of Oregon at its helm.

With the CHIPS Act, President Biden and VP Harris are bringing this lucrative industry onto American soil and keeping it here, so that Americans can reap the benefits, creating high quality microchips that power the technologies that keep the U.S. on top. 

Using this historic investment in the future of technology, the Biden Administration is turning to the “silicon forest” in Oregon to help the nation meet its goals. Over the past two years, it has invested over $190 million into semiconductor projects in the Beaver State. Projects include collaborations with American tech companies Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and Analog Devices. The state of Oregon, thanks to bipartisan cooperation inspired by national leadership, has allocated an additional $200 million to support manufacturers and to attract businesses to Oregon’s blossoming semiconductor ecosystem. And the investments are already paying dividends, with Oregon’s microchip industry earning $14.56 billion through tech exports in 2022 alone.

The impact of CHIPS in Oregon has been uniquely pro-business and pro-worker. While the state only accounts for 1.3% of the country’s total population, it accounts for 9% of all semiconductor jobs, and is poised to add thousands more jobs over the next few years thanks to CHIPS funding. In order to meet these high demand jobs that will bring America into the future, Oregon has created accessible pathways to employment. Under the Oregon CHIPS Act – the state’s complimentary bill package to the federal law – the state has established two multi-million dollar funds to help college-aged women, people of color, and other underrepresented groups in the STEM fields to develop the skills they need to join the microchip workforce in manufacturing and research. Oregon has also expanded access to high quality childcare for members of the workforce, ensuring that semiconductor workers and those constructing expanded microchip facilities can go to work worry free. 

Thanks to monumental investments from the Biden Administration, the lucrative microchip industry of the future – and its high-paying workforce – is blooming at home in Oregon.