The Biden government announced it will grant $6.6 billion to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) Arizona subsidiary. The firm’s president, Brian Harrison, is the former chief executive of Solyndra, a solar energy company that took $500 million in government loans from the Obama government before collapsing. In addition, the subsidy raises national security concerns as TSMC continues to source some equipment used in semiconductor fabrication from mainland China.
Harrison acknowledged appealing for federal funding for the semiconductor firm last year. The cash infusion is part of the CHIPS and Science Act, aimed at advancing domestic chip manufacturing and countering China’s hold over the industry.
In October last year, the Biden government issued a sanctions waiver allowing several chip makers to purchase critical technology from suppliers located in mainland China, despite concerns the equipment could be compromised by Chinese Communist intelligence. TSMC and Samsung — who agreed to construct semiconductor facilities in the United States — received waivers.
President Joe Biden backed the substantial monetary support to TSMC and lauded the benefits it will supposedly bring, despite the Obama regime’s experience with Solyndra. Following the solar firm’s collapse, an inspector general investigation found it had misled government officials, noting the “actions of certain Solyndra officials were, at best, reckless and irresponsible or, at worst, an orchestrated effort to knowingly and intentionally deceive and mislead the Department [of Energy].”
Obama reduced the Energy Department’s loan office resources following the Solyndra fiasco, but Biden has now expanded them substantially, arming the department with funds for green energy loans to the tune of $400 billion.
Republicans have already raised concerns about the loan office’s director, Jigar Shah, having alleged conflicts of interest with loan recipients and warned that waste under Biden will make the Solyndra losses look like “chump change.”
