US semiconductor strategy offers opportunities for Vietnam

The United States' strategy to rebuild its semiconductor industry presents both opportunities and challenges for Vietnam as it seeks to deepen its role in global supply chains. Central to this shift is the US CHIPS and Science Act, which allocates $52.7 billion over five years to support the sector. This funding includes approximately $39 billion for domestic chip manufacturing, materials, and equipment; $11 billion for research, development, and R&D infrastructure; and $2 billion for defense-related microelectronics initiatives.

While US fiscal policies and tax incentives offer a model for semiconductor development, they also highlight significant implementation hurdles. Major US projects, such as those by TSMC in Arizona and Intel in Ohio, have faced delays due to infrastructure constraints, limited practical experience with sophisticated equipment, and a projected shortage of approximately 157,000 full-time workers in the US industry by 2030.

For Vietnam, the current geopolitical and technological competition underscores the need to match semiconductor manufacturing ambitions with realistic domestic capacity. The US approach, which includes tax credits and clawback provisions for investments that shift to perceived security risks, provides a lesson in the importance of predictable tax frameworks and the difficulty of converting policy into actual production capacity.