Why it matters: Donald Trump wants to kill off the Chips Act, the 2022 bipartisan law that is handing out $52.7 billion in subsidies to help bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the US. The President wants to use the money to pay the national debt instead. In his first address to the joint session of Congress since he returned as President, Trump blasted the Chips Act."Your Chips Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn't mean a thing. They take our money and they don't spend it," Trump said."You should get rid of the Chips Act and whatever is left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt."According to the Treasury Department, the US federal debt is over $36.2 trillion, 123% of the country's 2024 national income.Trump suggested that manufacturing companies would be incentivized to build facilities in the US to avoid the new tariffs he has introduced. "We don't have to give them money," Trump said.Yesterday, chip giant TSMC announced that it was increasing its investment in US chip manufacturing by an extra $100 billion, bringing the total to $165 billion. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump's tariffs have made the US a more attractive proposition when overseas firms are looking for locations to build manufacturing facilities. // Related StoriesTSMC's $6.6 billion grant awarded under the US Chips Act was finalized last November. Lutnick said the government was not planning on giving TSMC any new subsidies, despite it being eligible for a 25% manufacturing investment tax credit. The company said last month that it has already received $1.5 billion of the award.So far, the Chips act has announced approximately $32.5 billion in grant awards and up to $5.5 billion in loans to 32 companies across 48 projects in 23 states. In addition to TSMC, the biggest beneficiaries have been Intel ($8.5 billion), Samsung ($6.4 billion), Micron ($6.1 billion), and GlobalFoundries ($1.5 billion).Some in government have expressed concerns about Trump's plans, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who said the Chips act "is the reason Micron is bringing $100 billion and 50,000 jobs to Central New York. Trump just said he wants to get rid of it."Representative Greg Stanton said Trump's words were a "direct attack on Arizona's semiconductor industry and tens of thousands of Arizona workers."Reuters reported this week that approximately one-third of staff in the US Commerce Department office overseeing the allocation of Chips act money were laid off.The Chips (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) and Science Act was enacted in August 2022 with the aim of boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research, and development. It was a response to the global chip crisis that hit during the pandemic, as well as China's persistent threat to Taiwan, which produces about 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductorsThe $52.7 billion the act is funding to support the semiconductor industry comes in the form of $39 billion in manufacturing incentives, including grants and loans, and $13.2 billion for research and development.