Why is the US about to give away $52bn to corporations like Intel? | Robert Reich

The Chips Act would provide an enormous subsidy to chipmakers for making their chips in the US. This is extortion

Congress will soon put final touches on the Chips Act, which will provide more than $52bn to companies that design and make semiconductor chips.

The subsidy is demanded by the biggest chipmakers as a condition for making more chips in America.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com