Thank you to Governor DeWine, Lt. Gov. Husted, Senator Brown and Senator Portman for inviting me to join you today.

Senators Brown and Portman were essential partners in our work to pass the US Innovation and Competition Act in the Senate.

Thank you, also, to Reps. Joyce Beatty and Troy Balderson for your support of domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

My Deputy Secretary, Don Graves, is Ohio’s biggest cheerleader, and I want to thank him for joining us today as well.

This is an exciting day for Ohio and our country.

From day one, the Biden Administration has recognized that if we want to compete globally, we need to invest domestically.

So let me thank Pat Gelsinger and Intel for making this massive investment right here in Ohio.

Not only will this help us to ensure resilient, diverse, and secure domestic supply chains, it will create thousands of good paying American jobs.

At the Commerce Department, we’re laser-focused on revitalizing America’s semiconductor industry. Semiconductors are the essential building blocks of our modern economy.

They power our smartphones, cars, and medical equipment.

America created the semiconductor industry. 20 years ago, we produced nearly 40 percent of all chips.

Since 1990, American chip production has declined from 37% of global supply to just 12% today.

This presents both an economic and national security problem.

And we know for a fact that supply chains are directly linked to the increase in inflation and rising costs for America’s families.

One-third of inflation in the year 2021 was directly tied to auto prices.

The auto industry manufactured 7.7 million fewer cars than expected, leading to a 22 percent increase in prices, specifically because we don’t have enough semiconductors to meet auto demand.

And right here in Ohio, automakers and workers faced temporary shutdowns and reduced production schedules in 2021 because of the global chip shortage.

But we know the solution:  Make more chips on American soil.

That’s why today’s announcement from Intel is a very big deal.

The private sector is stepping up and making a number of significant investments on American soil that will shore up our supply chains, create jobs, and restore our manufacturing economy.

And this will position Ohio’s auto industry to be at the forefront of the jobs of the future.

President Biden has set an ambitious target to make electric vehicles half of all new car sales by 2030.

It is indisputable that electric vehicles are the future of auto manufacturing, and it’s fundamentally a question of whether we want those jobs here in America, or somewhere else.

At Secretary of Commerce, I want those good-paying manufacturing jobs here in the United States.

We also know that increasing our production of electric vehicles means we’re going to need more semiconductors. The average EV has more than 2000 chips, more than twice as many as a car with an internal combustion engine.

Better semiconductors – produced right here in America – will allow us to make electric vehicle batteries more efficient, capture a larger share of the global electric vehicle market, keep manufacturing facilities up and running, and create more American jobs.

But we need to do more. The President and I are continuing to urge Congress to pass chips funding as part of the US Innovation and Competition Act, which would invest $52 billion in domestic semiconductor production.

I want to thank Senator Brown and Senator Portman for voting for the bill when it passed the Senate, and their continued efforts to get it signed into law. Their leadership has been indispensable.

Forecasts indicate that if we strengthen American supply chains and manufacturing, we’ll boost GDP by up to $460 billion dollars and add 1.5 million jobs.

By working together, we can build a more inclusive and equitable economy for American workers and businesses. We can create jobs of the future at the same time we’re boosting American competitiveness.

So again, thank you to Intel for choosing to invest on American soil, and to everyone who worked so hard to make today a reality.

I’m excited about what this means for Ohio, for America, and for American workers.

Thank you.