The CHIPS Act and Semiconductor Reshoring: What It Means for Component Availability

Hundreds of billions in new fab investment are reshaping U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, but the capacity gap between today’s constraints and tomorrow’s production creates a multi-year planning challenge for every OEM that depends on electronic components. The CHIPS Act semiconductor reshoring component availability initiatives are central to this transformation, aiming to strengthen supply chain resilience and boost domestic chip production.

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 launched the largest semiconductor manufacturing investment in U.S. history. Since its passage, more than $640 billion in domestic fab investment has been announced, over 50 new semiconductor ecosystem projects are underway, and more than 68,000 direct manufacturing jobs are projected across new and expanded facilities. The goal is ambitious: raise U.S. semiconductor manufacturing from roughly 10% of global capacity back toward 20% by 2030, reversing a decline from 37% in 1990. This effort is supported by the Commerce Department and the National Semiconductor Technology Center to advance semiconductor technologies and manufacturing USA institutes focused on research and development and workforce development.

For engineering, procurement, quality assurance, and supply chain leaders at OEMs building electronic products for aerospace, defense, automotive, and industrial markets, the CHIPS Act represents a generational shift in where semiconductors will be manufactured. The question that matters most for near-term planning, however, is when that new capacity will actually produce components, and what happens in the years between now and then.

The answer is sobering. The majority of new fabs will not reach volume production until 2028 to 2030. Meanwhile, semiconductor lead times have reached 40 weeks as of March 2026, mature-node capacity remains structurally constrained, and the Section 48D tax credit that anchors much of the investment is set to expire at the end of 2026, creating uncertainty about projects that have not yet broken ground. The CHIPS Act subsidies combined with federal funding and financial incentives aim to mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities but face challenges in implementation.

What Is Being Built: The Major CHIPS Act Fab Projects

The scale of construction is unprecedented in the U.S. semiconductor industry. Understanding which projects are underway, what they will produce, and when they will reach volume output is essential context for supply chain planning.

Sources: SEMI, company announcements, SIA, PwC. See full source list below.

Several patterns stand out. First, the largest investments target advanced semiconductor technology nodes (5nm and below) optimized for AI processors and high-performance computing, reflecting growing demand for artificial intelligence and advanced chips. Second, the timeline from construction start to volume production spans three to five years for most projects. Third, only Texas Instruments and GlobalFoundries are making significant investments in the mature node chips and specialty processes (28nm and above) that serve the majority of automotive, industrial, aerospace, and defense applications.

The Timeline Gap: Why New Fabs Will Not Solve Today’s Shortages

Building a semiconductor fabrication facility is one of the most capital-intensive and time-consuming construction projects in any industry. A modern 300mm wafer fab typically requires three to five years from groundbreaking to volume production, with the first 18 to 24 months consumed by building construction alone before equipment installation and process qualification can begin.

This timeline creates a structural gap between today’s component availability challenges and tomorrow’s expanded capacity. For OEMs managing BOMs in 2026 and 2027, the CHIPS Act fabs are a future benefit, not a near-term solution. Semiconductor lead times at 40 weeks, automotive MCUs in allocation at 26 to 40 weeks, and power semiconductors and power management ICs under sustained pressure will remain the operating reality for the next two to three years regardless of how quickly construction proceeds.

The challenge is compounded by construction delays that have already affected several major projects. Both Intel and TSMC have cited high costs and a shortage of skilled construction workers as factors pushing timelines. The U.S. semiconductor construction workforce faces a generational skills gap: the average skilled construction worker is over 50 years old, and for every five workers leaving the industry, only one new entrant replaces them. Industry surveys show 61% of construction firms have raised base pay, 63% have added benefits, and 54% have implemented overtime or double-time policies to attract and retain skilled workers. These labor constraints are adding cost and extending timelines for nearly every fab project in the pipeline.

The Mature-Node Blind Spot: Where the CHIPS Act Investment Falls Short

The CHIPS Act investment portfolio is overwhelmingly concentrated in advanced-node manufacturing. This makes strategic sense for competing with Taiwan and South Korea in AI and high-performance computing. However, it leaves a critical gap for the OEMs that this blog’s audience represents: approximately 80% of the semiconductor chips used in modern vehicles are manufactured on mature nodes of 28nm and above. The same is true for the majority of components used in aerospace, defense, industrial, and medical devices.

Power management ICs typically use 180nm or 130nm processes. Analog signal conditioning and sensor interface chips are manufactured on 90nm to 350nm nodes. Automotive MCUs are fabricated on 28nm to 40nm processes. These are the components that experienced the longest shortages during 2020-2022, that are under renewed pressure from AI data center demand in 2026, and that will see the least direct benefit from CHIPS Act capacity additions.

TSMC has told automotive customers it will not expand capacity at 40nm and 90nm nodes. Instead, TSMC may reallocate select 45nm to 90nm mature-node capacity toward advanced packaging, (CoWoS, Chip on Wafer on Substrate), production to serve AI processor demand. Global mature-node capacity is growing at roughly 5% CAGR, while demand from automotive and industrial applications alone is expanding at 10-15% annually. The structural deficit is widening.

For procurement and engineering teams, this means the component categories most critical to their products will remain supply-constrained even as CHIPS Act fabs begin producing advanced-node chips for AI and mobile applications. Planning for continued mature-node tightness is essential.

The Section 48D Tax Credit: Expiration Risk and Investment Uncertainty

Section 48D of the CHIPS Act provides a 35% investment tax credit for investments in advanced semiconductor manufacturing facilities. This credit has been a primary policy lever driving the $640 billion in announced domestic investment. However, the credit is set to expire on December 31, 2026: any property where construction has not begun by that date will be ineligible.

The implications are significant. In May 2026, the Semiconductor Industry Association and 17 allied trade groups sent a formal letter to Congress urging lawmakers to extend the credit before its expiration puts hundreds of billions in planned fab capacity at risk. Companies weighing whether to break ground on new U.S. fab capacity face simultaneous uncertainty on both the incentive side (will the credit be extended?) and the cost side (construction costs are 30-50% higher in the U.S. than in Asia). For decade-long capital commitments measured in tens of billions of dollars, this uncertainty can delay or redirect investment decisions.

If the credit expires without extension, the pipeline of projects that have been announced but not yet started construction could slow, shift to other geographies, or be scaled back. For the supply chain, this means that some of the capacity additions OEMs are counting on in their 2028-2030 planning models may not materialize on the timelines currently projected.

The Workforce Challenge: Staffing the Fabs That Are Being Built

Even when construction is complete, new fabs require trained operators, process engineers, equipment technicians, and quality engineers to reach volume production. The SIA-Oxford Economics study projects the U.S. semiconductor industry needs to add 115,000 jobs by 2030, with approximately 67,000 of those at risk of going unfilled. The number of workers in U.S. semiconductor and electronic component manufacturing has actually declined from a peak of approximately 401,000 in 2023 to 368,400 as of March 2026.

McKinsey has projected that the U.S. could face a shortage of up to 300,000 skilled semiconductor workers by the end of the decade when accounting for the full ecosystem of fab operators, equipment maintenance, chip design engineers, and supporting technical roles. New fab construction specifically will require 48,000 new technician and engineering positions by 2030.

For OEMs relying on the output of these new fabs, workforce shortages translate directly into slower production ramps. A fab that is physically complete but understaffed will take longer to reach the yields and throughput rates that translate into available components in the market. This ramp delay extends the timeline gap between when capacity is announced and when components actually become available for procurement.

What This Means for OEMs Managing Component Availability Today

The CHIPS Act reshoring effort will ultimately strengthen U.S. semiconductor supply chain resilience and reduce dependency on certain foreign countries. For supply chain planning over the next two to four years, however, the practical implications require sober assessment.

• Advanced-node capacity will improve first. TSMC, Intel, and Samsung fabs targeting 2nm to 5nm production will serve AI, mobile, and high-performance computing markets first. OEMs building products on mature-node components will see indirect benefits (reduced competition for foundry attention) but limited direct capacity relief.
• Mature-node constraints will persist through 2028 at minimum. With CHIPS Act investment concentrated in advanced nodes and TSMC signaling no expansion at 40nm and 90nm, the component categories most used by aerospace, defense, automotive, and industrial OEMs will remain structurally tight. Automotive MCUs at 28-40nm are already in allocation at 26-40 week lead times.
• The Section 48D expiration introduces planning risk. OEMs building long-range supply strategies around announced but not-yet-started fab projects should scenario-plan for the possibility that some capacity additions are delayed or reduced if the tax credit is not extended.
• Construction and workforce delays extend all published timelines. Published production dates assume best-case construction and staffing ramps. Historical experience and current labor market conditions suggest that 12- to 24-month delays from announced targets are common. Factor this into capacity availability assumptions.
• Geopolitical diversification is real but incomplete. The CHIPS Act reduces long-term concentration risk in Taiwan and South Korea. In the near term, however, the U.S. still depends on Asian fabs for the majority of production, and any disruption to TSMC’s operations in Taiwan would affect global supply regardless of how quickly Arizona fabs ramp.

How OEMs Can Navigate the Reshoring Transition

The gap between CHIPS Act announcements and operational capacity creates a multi-year planning challenge. OEMs that start preparing now will be better positioned when new capacity eventually reaches the market.

• Map your BOM to process nodes and foundry sources. Understand which components on your active BOMs are manufactured on mature nodes (28nm+) versus advanced nodes. Components on mature nodes will see the least near-term benefit from CHIPS Act capacity. Identify which foundries and process nodes your critical components depend on.
• Build 52-week or longer planning horizons for constrained categories. Standard planning cycles cannot account for 40-week semiconductor lead times and multi-year capacity ramp timelines. Extend demand forecasts and share them with distributors and suppliers to improve your position in allocation decisions.
• Monitor the Section 48D legislative process. Congressional action on the tax credit extension will directly affect whether announced fab projects proceed on current timelines. Track this as a supply chain risk variable, not just a policy headline.
• Qualify alternative sources now, not during the next shortage. The 6- to 18-month qualification cycle for automotive-grade (AEC-Q100) components means that alternative sourcing decisions made in 2026 will not produce qualified options until 2027 or 2028. Starting the qualification process now aligns with when new capacity is expected to begin ramping.
• Track lead time trends as a leading indicator. Accuris lead time data shows that the 12-month pattern of gradually rising lead times preceded each major constraint period. Continuous monitoring, rather than quarterly BOM reviews, gives procurement teams the early warning needed to act before allocation hits. Survey data confirms the cost of delayed action: 72% of organizations report the annual cost of reactive supply chain decisions exceeds $50,000.

The Long Game of Semiconductor Reshoring

The CHIPS Act has catalyzed a historic investment cycle in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Over the next decade, these investments will meaningfully reduce the geographic concentration risk that has defined the global semiconductor value chain for two decades. The reshoring effort is real, funded, and underway.

The operational reality for the next three to four years, however, is that OEMs must manage component availability in a market where new capacity is announced but not yet delivered, where mature-node investment lags advanced-node investment, and where workforce and construction constraints are extending every published timeline. The organizations that will navigate this transition successfully are those with the visibility to track the supply landscape in real time and the intelligence to plan around what is actually available, rather than what has been announced.

Accuris Supply Chain Intelligence provides engineering, procurement, quality assurance, and supply chain teams with real-time lead time and pricing visibility, BOM-level risk analytics, lifecycle monitoring, and component intelligence across over 1.2 billion electronic parts. As the semiconductor manufacturing landscape shifts, Accuris gives OEMs the data to distinguish between capacity that is announced and capacity that is available. Learn how Accuris helps teams plan through the reshoring transition.

Related Reading

• The Slow Burn Becomes a Flash Point: Electronic Component Lead Times in 2025-2026
• How AI Data Centers Are Reshaping Electronic Component Supply in 2026
• Why Electronic Component Costs Are Rising in 2026 and How to Manage Them
• 5 Common Electronics Manufacturing Bottlenecks (and How to Fix Them)

Sources:

1. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). “Chip Incentives & Investments.” https://www.semiconductors.org/chips/— Comprehensive data on U.S. semiconductor reshoring, highlighting $640 billion in announced domestic semiconductor investment anchored by the Section 48D tax credit, over 50 new semiconductor ecosystem projects, and 68,000+ direct jobs projected. Includes insights from SIA and allied trade groups urging extension of the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit, emphasizing the role of government assistance and chips funding in boosting domestic production and production capacity.

2. PwC. “The CHIPS Act: What It Means for the Semiconductor Ecosystem.” https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/chips-act.html — Detailed overview of the CHIPS Act provisions, including the semiconductor investment tax credit worth $24 billion, direct funding incentives, and the Section 48D 35% investment tax credit. Explains how the act includes provisions to promote domestic semiconductor production and advanced technologies while addressing national security concerns.

3. U.S. Department of Commerce. “Fact Sheet: Restoring American Semiconductor Manufacturing Leadership Through an Agreement on Trade & Investment with Taiwan.” January 2026. https://www.commerce.gov/news/fact-sheets/2026/01/— Data on the decline and targeted recovery of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing share from 37% in 1990 to approximately 10% in 2024, with a goal of reaching 20% by 2030. Highlights $250 billion in new Taiwanese investment commitments and the role of the chips program office in strengthening global semiconductor supply chains.

4. SEMI. “Eighteen New Semiconductor Fabs to Start Construction in 2025.” https://www.semi.org/en/semi-press-release/eighteen-new-semiconductor-fabs-to-start-construction-in-2025-semi-reports — Industry report on fab construction timelines, 300mm silicon wafer capacity expansion, and the impact on semiconductor manufacturing materials and chipmaking equipment supply. Provides insights into production capacity growth and the role of domestic production in reshoring efforts.

5. Westside Construction Group. “America’s Semiconductor Construction Boom: The Biggest Fab Projects Reshaping U.S. Manufacturing.” 2026. https://www.buildwcg.com/blog-posts/semiconductor-fab-construction-boom-2026 — Detailed project-specific investment figures, timelines, and production targets for leading edge logic chips fabs by TSMC, Intel, Samsung, Micron, Texas Instruments, and GlobalFoundries. Discusses total capital expenditures and tax incentives driving these semiconductor production expansions.

6. Tom’s Hardware. “Micron Says New York Chipmaking Fabs Still on Track.” 2026. https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/microns-new-york-chipmaking-fabs — Updates on Micron’s semiconductor wafers production timeline at Fab 4 Boise and phased New York fab construction. Covers the significance of mature-node chips and silicon wafers in consumer electronics and industrial applications.

7. Tech Times. “Chip Industry Presses Congress to Extend the Tax Credit Anchoring $640 Billion in U.S. Fab Investment.” May 15, 2026. https://www.techtimes.com/articles/316680/20260515/ — Analysis of the Section 48D expiration risk, the chips program’s impact on investment certainty, and the congressional research service’s perspective on the importance of extending chips funding to maintain U.S. global competitiveness.

8. ITIF (Information Technology and Innovation Foundation). “U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturing Tax Credits Need To Be Extended and Broadened.” June 10, 2025. https://itif.org/publications/2025/06/10/ — Policy analysis of the Section 48D tax credit extension arguments, U.S. production cost premiums compared to Asian competitors, and the importance of creating helpful incentives to sustain semiconductor production capacity and maintain a dominant position in the global competition.

9. SIA-Oxford Economics. “Chipping Away: Assessing and Addressing the Labor Shortage Facing the U.S. Semiconductor Industry.” — Data on workforce shortages, highlighting the need for 115,000 new semiconductor jobs by 2030, with 67,000 at risk of going unfilled. Explores challenges in staffing fabs and the impact on semiconductor production timelines and national security concerns.

10. McKinsey & Company. “Strategies for Building U.S. Semiconductor Fabs: Finding Skilled Labor.” https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/semiconductors/our-insights/ — Forecasts potential shortage of up to 300,000 skilled semiconductor workers by 2030, including 48,000 new technician and engineering roles required for new fabs. Discusses workforce development as a critical component of the chips program office’s strategy for expanding domestic production.

11. IEEE Spectrum. “Workforce Shortage: U.S. Will Be 4,500 Fab Jobs Short in 2030.” https://spectrum.ieee.org/workforce-shortage — Provides insights into the aging construction workforce for semiconductor fabs, wage pressures, and the challenges of attracting talent to support the chips act semiconductor reshoring component availability initiatives.

12. TrendForce. “TSMC May Reallocate Select 45-90nm Mature-Node Capacity to CoWoS-Related Production.” January 12, 2026. https://www.trendforce.com/news/2026/01/12/ — Analysis of TSMC’s mature-node capacity strategy, including silicon wafer allocation shifts to advanced packaging (CoWoS) for AI supply chain demands, illustrating the balance between leading edge chips and mature-node chip production.

13. S&P Global. “Another Semiconductor Shortage May Be Coming.” 2024. https://www.spglobal.com/automotive-insights/en/blogs/2024/8/ — Highlights the persistent structural deficit in mature-node semiconductor wafers used in automotive and industrial applications, emphasizing the need for domestic production to address supply constraints.

14. SupplyICs. “Q2 2026 Semiconductor Lead Time & Pricing Outlook.” https://supplyics.com/insights/market-intelligence/q2-2026-semiconductor-lead-time-pricing-outlook/ — Market intelligence on semiconductor lead times, including consumer electronics and automotive MCUs, supporting supply chain visibility and risk management for OEMs.

15. Jaknunas, Greg. “The Slow Burn Becomes a Flash Point: Electronic Component Lead Times in 2025-2026.” Accuris Blog, April 13, 2026. https://accuristech.com/blog/the-slow-burn-becomes-a-flash-point/ — Proprietary data on lead time trends, illustrating the impact of supply chain disruptions on semiconductor production capacity and the importance of real-time component availability intelligence.

16. Fuld & Company / Accuris, Electronic Parts Intelligence Survey, March 2026 (N=439). — Survey data revealing that 72% of organizations experience annual costs exceeding $50,000 due to reactive supply chain decisions, underscoring the value of proactive parts lifecycle and sourcing strategies.

17. Accuris Monthly Lead Time Changes Reports, March 2025 through March 2026. — Proprietary tracking of lead time fluctuations across electronic component categories, enabling engineering and procurement teams to anticipate supply chain risks related to chips act semiconductor reshoring component availability.

18. Accuris Supply Chain Intelligence platform data. — Comprehensive component lifecycle, sourcing, and lead time intelligence covering over 1.2 billion electronic parts, supporting OEMs in managing supply chain resilience amid the reshoring transition and global semiconductor supply chains challenges.