White House to meet with tech leaders about semiconductor shortage
The president is expected to briefly join the virtual summit.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Automakers and tech companies will be discussing chip shortfalls with the White House.
The White House will meet with CEOs from Intel, Dell, Samsung, Ford, HP, AT&T, Alphabet, General Motors and other companies on Monday to discuss the global computer chip shortage.
The virtual semiconductor summit will include White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. President Joe Biden is expected to "briefly join" the summit to discuss his jobs and infrastructure plan as well as steps to strengthen supply chains, according to the White House.
Also set to attend the semiconductor summit are executives from Cummins, Global Foundries, Medtronic, Micron, Northrop Grumman, NXP, Paccar, Piston Group, SkyWater Technology, Stellantis and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., according to CNBC.
Read more: From PS5 to Ford F-150: How a global chip shortage is 'impacting everything'
The meeting follows Biden's February signing of an executive order to improve the semiconductor chip supply chain, which included a 100-day review. "We need to make sure these supply chains are secure and reliable," Biden said at the time, adding that semiconductor chips power everything from cars to phones to medical devices.
The summit on Monday will give companies an opportunity to bring up issues and grievances but isn't expected to result in "substantive outcomes or a path forward on the shortage," reported Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the planning.
With Ford, General Motors, Toyota and other automakers unable to obtain certain chips, they're cutting production of vehicles including the Ford F-150, while there are also shortages of chips for Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X. Qualcomm has also been unable to get enough processors to meet the demands of phone makers.
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
CNET's Carrie Mihalcik contributed to this report.