Thank you to those of you in attendance today. Many of you have given your time and ideas over the last several years to help us design the plan for the National Semiconductor Technology Center and the CHIPS Research & Development Programs. A special thanks to members of the CHIPS Industrial Advisory Committee, chaired by Mike Splinter, who put in a tremendous amount of work since forming in the fall of 2022 through hundreds of meetings with industry and other stakeholders to make recommendations to me and the Department.

It’s hard to believe it’s only been 18 months since President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law. Even in that short amount of time, we’ve accomplished so much.

On the incentives side, we’re allocating a huge amount of taxpayer money for industry to rebuild American semiconductor manufacturing – that's a lot to be excited about.

As most of you in this room know, CHIPS for America is also investing $11 billion in CHIPS funding that’s focused on R&D. That’s because the success of the CHIPS for America program will be short-lived if we focus only on manufacturing. R&D is how we ensure the sustainability and resilience of our semiconductor industry at home.

Maintaining our global leadership in chip innovation is also crucial to our ability to lead the world in developing AI safely and responsibly. Our national security and our economic security depend on it. We need to be nimble and dynamic so that we can keep pace. We’ll only do that by having a strong R&D ecosystem at home.

That’s where the NSTC – the National Semiconductor Technology Center – comes in. As a public-private partnership, the NSTC will convene government, industry, customers, suppliers, educational institutions, entrepreneurs, and investors to innovate, connect, and solve problems.

We’re incredibly proud that Deirdre Hanford will lead this effort. She is a semiconductor industry leader with 30 years of experience, and at Natcast, will operate the NSTC consortium. I’m also pleased to announce that the Commerce Department expects to invest over $5 billion in this once-in-a-generation program.

The NSTC will also prioritize launching a Workforce Center of Excellence, which will be the definitive, trusted hub for workforce development for semiconductor companies doing business in America. We want the NSTC to be the place where stakeholders work together to solve the industry’s workforce challenges, help accelerate best practices, and strengthen recruitment and training of the next generation of semiconductor researchers, engineers, and technicians.  

This is exciting work that’s going supercharge American innovation, and I’m looking forward to getting the NSTC consortium up and running. It’s my honor to be here with all of you to sign this agreement. Thank you.