Google Chair to Lead Biden Admin Chip Research Group

The Biden administration has selected John L. Hennessy, chairman of Google parent company Alphabet’s board of directors, to lead a new research group into computer chips.

Reuters, which obtained a statement on the matter, said the Department of Commerce is expected to announce its decision to form the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) on Tuesday evening.

Hennessy is also a professor at Stanford University and will be joined by Deloitte Consulting Principal Janet Foutty, RAND Corporation CEO Jason Matheny, Anzu Partners’ Donald J. Rosenberg, and AnitaB.org CEO Brenda Wilkerson.

A nonprofit, the NSTC was first detailed in the CHIPS and Science Act signed last year, appropriating heaps of cash toward a public-private partnership in semiconductor manufacturing.

The NSTC’s board is expected to make politically sensitive decisions, including where in the United States to locate the center’s research facilities and recommendations on what plants to subsidize.

“The NSTC will be an ambitious public-private consortium where government, industry, customers, suppliers, educational institutions, entrepreneurs, and investors will come together to innovate, connect, and solve problems,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated in April.

“While the manufacturing incentives of the CHIPS Act will bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S., a robust R&D ecosystem led by the NSTC will keep it here,” she added.

Economists have applauded the NSTC’s formation, stressing that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to shortages in cars, washing machines, and video gaming consoles – which all rely on semiconductor chips.