Why should taxpayer money be used to fund private ventures though? It's obviously not economically viable to make chips in America, otherwise it would already be happening. Taiwan is not a low cost-of-labor country; it excels in chipmaking because of various factors like education and the industry there, just like America excels in some other industries for various reasons, such as software (e.g. Google and Apple).
Hiring consultants and teachers (from where?) isn't going to help with the complete lack of engineers. It takes many, many years to build a workforce of engineers needed for what's being discussed here, and even then it's not guaranteed because it relies on getting young people to go to engineering school and get degrees in relevant specialties, and then work in industry for a while to gain relevant experience. This isn't something you can just throw some money at to acquire or develop.
> It's obviously not economically viable to make chips in America, otherwise it would already be happening.
Path dependence is a thing. It might be perfectly economical once you get there, it was just simpler to establish in Taiwan for whatever historical reasons.
Hiring consultants and teachers (from where?) isn't going to help with the complete lack of engineers. It takes many, many years to build a workforce of engineers needed for what's being discussed here, and even then it's not guaranteed because it relies on getting young people to go to engineering school and get degrees in relevant specialties, and then work in industry for a while to gain relevant experience. This isn't something you can just throw some money at to acquire or develop.