In an interview with CNN at the WEF Davos, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger predicted that over the next 50 years, semiconductor chip supply networks will have a greater impact on geopolitics than oil supply chains. The majority of modern comforts are “chipped” and connected in some way, and as a result, states that produce chips or companies that supply chips will have a clear geopolitical edge, just like those that produce oil have now. According to Gelsinger, the location of oil reserves “has shaped geopolitics for the last five decades,” whereas semiconductor manufacturing locations will be more significant over the following five decades.

When global semiconductor supply chains collapsed starting in 2020, affecting a wide range of other industries like vehicles, construction, remote work, consumer electronics, and much more, we got a taste of exactly what he meant. With the exception of geopolitical, trade, and intellectual property constraints, chips may be produced practically anywhere, unlike oil, which is a natural resource that is geographically confined. Gelsinger suggests spreading chip manufacture over a much larger geographic area so that the supply chains become more resistant to interruptions brought on by unanticipated events. We require this resilient, globally balanced supply network, he declared. In order to both satisfy domestic demand and strengthen the robustness of the global supply chain, Gelsinger is at the vanguard of the argument for semiconductor manufacture on American soil. More than $200 billion in public expenditures would be made in semiconductor manufacturing and tech research in the United States under the CHIPS Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2022.