The Chips Act Needs Immigration Reform

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The Chips Act Needs Immigration Reform

No Brainer. The immigration of the world’s brightest scientists and engineers has always been America’s unassailable advantage. It has helped drive incredible technology innovation, strengthened our national security, and created an economic growth machine that has become the envy of the world.

But the prospects for all those things are now at risk due to myopia in Washington, D.C.

Already, the U.K. and Canada smell weakness. The two countries have been enacting policies to recruit highly skilled foreigners away from the U.S. This week, Canada started offering work permits directly aimed at attracting America’s H-1B visa holders.

The U.S. shouldn’t be complacent on the issue. Immigration has been the lifeblood of the semiconductor industry’s rise. Hungarian immigrant Andy Grove shepherded Intel (ticker: INTC) into a chip giant. A duo of Taiwanese immigrants—Nvidia (NVDA) co-founder Jensen Huang and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su—have played pivotal roles in maintaining America’s technology leadership and its dominance of the world’s chip industry.

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