March 4 (Reuters) - GlobalFoundries ( GFS ) Chief
Executive Officer Thomas Caulfield said on Tuesday that U.S.
tariffs on foreign-made chips could help U.S. chip manufacturers
by boosting demand for domestically made chips.
Caulfield told an investor conference hosted by Morgan
Stanley the $52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act and an
investment tax credit on chip-making equipment had helped boost
U.S. capacity to make chips. Tariffs that would make foreign
chips more expensive would help steer customers toward the chips
being produced in U.S. factories, he added.
"I don't think one or the other is enough. I do believe you
need (the) CHIPS (Act) and the (investment tax credit) to create
the capacity, and the tariffs to kind of create the dynamics to
make the demand want to come home," said Caulfield, who plans to
transition to an executive chairman role next month.
Caulfield's comments come as some in the industry have
braced for potential changes to CHIPS Act grant conditions under
President Donald Trump.
Trump on Monday held a press conference with Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ( TSM ), which announced plans for new
factories and $100 billion of investment in the U.S.
"They're coming here in huge size because they want to be in
the greatest market in the world, and they want to avoid the
tariffs that if they're not here, they'd have to suffer,"
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said of TSMC on Monday.
On Tuesday, Caulfield said he expected the U.S. to land on a
combination of tariffs and government assistance.
"As we get through a little bit of the fluidity of the
situation right now, that's where this thing will land,"
Caulfield said. "We'll find that the combination of the two is
how you'll get the outcome you're looking for."
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by
Lincoln Feast.)