AI is eating the engineers America's chip boom needs to survive

The US is spending billions to bring chipmaking home, but it may not have the people to run the fabs. A new McKinsey and SEMI Foundation report says the industry needs about 189,000 new workers by 2030 and could end up as many as 157,000 short. The shortfall covers engineers and the technicians who keep fabs running.

The problem starts in college. Only 3% of US engineering grads go into semiconductors each year. Most of the rest go into AI and software, where the pay is higher and the work is more fashionable. 73% of chip employers say engineering roles are hard to fill, even with six-figure salaries on offer. "We just don't see that there's enough technical people in the pipeline," Samsung semiconductor EVP Jon Taylor told CNBC. Micron has also raised the alarm.

Schools are trying to catch up. Purdue launched semiconductor majors in 2022, and ASU built a cleanroom with $200M from Applied Materials, where TSMC also runs a technician program. That is still small next to a six-figure gap.

Why it matters: the AI boom runs on chips, and it is drawing away the engineers needed to make them.