One thing that American politicians seem to agree on, despite a host of other differences, is that the country must be at the forefront of technology to maintain a position of economic and geopolitical preeminence. How to ensure this leadership will be a crucial question for the next U.S. president and his or her staff.
The past two administrations have taken some extraordinary steps to maintain an edge in both chipmaking and AI, two areas that are inextricably linked. The U.S. and its allies have restricted the export of advanced chips and silicon manufacturing equipment to key geopolitical rivals (aka China). In 2022, the U.S. also passed the CHIPS Act, legislation that will invest $280 billion in bringing more microchip manufacturing back to U.S. soil.
Laurie E. Locascio, the undersecretary for standards and technology at the Department of Commerce and director of the National Institute of Standards and Technologies, who helps oversee the government’s chip investments, tells WIRED that devising new chip designs and manufacturing techniques is critical to ensuring the U.S.’s technological edge in AI. She adds that chip packaging, the process of combining components in new ways to improve performance, could be especially vital to the next wave of AI.
Locascio recently spoke with WIRED senior writer Will Knight at the Commerce Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. Their conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How have Generative AI and ChatGPT changed the US government's microchip priorities?
During Covid, we couldn’t get basic chips, the technologies that we rely on for everything. But the conversation is changing now. People are realizing that we need the most advanced chips. We’re really at the pinnacle of our capabilities in AI, and AI is changing the game for so many companies. So what’s important now, what’s on everyone’s mind, is AI chips.
What does this actually mean for the CHIPS Act?
We don't just want to bring today's technology to our shores. We really need to follow that up by being able to produce the next generation and the next innovations that come out of labs. We've always been really at the forefront of innovation and creativity in this space, and so that's our advantage.
That’s why the CHIPS Act has these two components: the $11 billion for R&D and the $39 billion for manufacturing. Those two have to work in sync with each other, because it’s really our ability to innovate that makes these manufacturers want to stay here. And so we’re developing, in sync with the R&D community, new types of technologies that can go directly onto the production lines.
Faster AI chips are crucial to AI companies’ efforts to build more powerful AI. How does that need impact investments in next-gen manufacturing?
I would say it really focused some of our thinking in certain areas. For example, as we think about how we’re going to spend the $3 billion that’s associated with “advanced packaging,” we’re really thinking about the AI problem now. We understand how important packaging can be to that particular problem set. I would say it really focused some of our thinking in certain areas, both on the manufacturing side and on the R&D side.
Why is packaging, the joining together of different components, so important?
It may sound like a mundane topic, but packaging enables the development of three-dimensional chip architectures that will really accelerate the power of AI chips and help build the AI revolution. We just announced a $1.6 billion notice of intent for funding. It’s really focused on a lot of areas, but the power requirements and thermal requirements associated with AI chips are really important.
